The Scottish Government

Annual Accounts for NHSScotland Health Boards and Trusts

The NHS Boards/Trusts Annual Accounts Manuals are issued annually by the Scottish Executive Health Department (SEHD), together with an Annual Accounts Spreadsheet Package for completion by all NHS Boards and Trusts. The Manual contents are agreed by the Technical Accounting Group (TAG), which along with the SEHD includes representatives from Trusts and Boards as well as Audit, both internal and external, and Audit Scotland.

As of 1 April 2002, the Manuals comply with Treasury's Resource Accounting Manual (RAM). Copies of the RAM can be found at http://www.resource-accounting.gov.uk/ As NHS Boards in Scotland have been within the boundary for The Scottish Executive Consolidated Resource Accounts since 1998/99, they have effectively been complying with the RAM since that time. The main changes for 2002-03 were therefore presentational. The Income and Expenditure Account was replaced with an Operating Cost Statement (OCS) and a General Fund introduced on the Balance Sheet.

The National Health Service in Scotland (NHSScotland) is principally organised into: 15 Health Boards as commissioners, the Common Services Agency, the State Hospitals Board, NHS Health Scotland, the Mental Welfare Commission, the Scottish Ambulance Service, NHS24, NHS Education for Scotland, the National Waiting Times Centre, Quality Improvement Scotland and 28 NHS Trusts as providers. Each of these is a self-accounting body reporting to the Scottish Executive Health Department (SEHD), who are responsible for the administration of government finance for the NHS in Scotland. Quality Improvement Scotland was formed on 1 January 2003 by the merger of the Clinical Standards Board for Scotland, the Health Technology Board for Scotland, the Clinical Resource and Audit Group and the Scottish Health Advisory Board.

The Scottish Executive has a statutory responsibility to prepare Resource Accounts in respect of all of the bodies within its accounting boundary. To this end the SEHD must prepare a consolidation pack annually for the NHS Boards in Scotland, and therefore requires that they prepare their accounts using common accounting principles and in standard formats for consolidation. NHS Trusts in Scotland are all likely to become part of unified Health Boards in 2004 so their accounts are also required to comply with these rules.

NHS Trusts have a separate Manual for Accounts issued by the SEHD but use the standard coding system, particularly for completion of Scottish Financial Returns (SFRs), and data for the NHSScotland Costs Book. The Costs Book Manual is issued to each trust Finance Director. The objective of the manuals is to define where costs are to be shown in the Accounts and SFRs in order to facilitate comparison between Trusts.

The NHS Health Board Accounting Manual and the NHS Trust Accounting Manual can be accessed from http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/sehd/fpma/manuals.htm