Chamber and committees

This is an operational matter for ScotRail. The Member may wish to contact ScotRail directly.

Determinations, recommendations and the response(s) to those recommendations from the body at which they were aimed are published on the website of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and are publicly available. The Scottish Government expects that the individual policy area or public body at which the recommendations were aimed would take action in light of any repeated recommendations.

We have not undertaken a review of ownership, but in line with all fleet vehicles, replacement will be considered when the Tesla’s reach the end of their operational life cycle.

Over the last three years, the Scottish Government has provided the Scottish Assembly with £425,136 to build capacity via our leadership and engagement framework and over the last 4 years has provided £316,349 of core funding via our Inspiring Inclusion charity portfolio. Both of these funds are managed and distributed by fund manager, Inspiring Scotland. The Scottish Assembly have an application for funding for 2025-26 submitted and applications are currently being considered.

To offset the changes to funding in 2025-26, we committed to a 6 month extension of the current funding allocated to the Scottish Assembly, which will total £107,152, to provide additional opportunities to explore alternative funding streams.

Inspiring Scotland offer management consultancy services to the Scottish Assembly’s executive team and Board and provide intensive support where needed. This includes support to explore alternative funding and income streams aimed at long term sustainability of the organisation.

The Memorandum of Understanding is a jointly drafted and agreed document between the Parole Board for Scotland (PBS) and Scottish Ministers. The MOU defines the relationship and interaction between Parole Board for Scotland and the Scottish Government.

The MoU is set to be rebranded as a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA).

Both the Parole Board for Scotland and the Scottish Government have reached agreement on the MoA document and are now finalising sign-off prior to publication.

We want patients to be treated as soon as possible. However, we know many are facing unacceptable waits and we are determined to do more. That is why we are targeting an additional £200 million to reduce waits and enhance capacity. We are also looking to optimise the full force of the £21.7 billion committed through the Scottish Budget to health and social care to improve performance.

The most recement statistics show that over the 12 months to December 2024, inpatient and day-case activity was over 256,000 (256,209); 7.4% (17,644) more than previous 12 months, demonstrating our plan to improvement in inpatient / day-case waiting times performance is delivering.

The expenditure of a) and b) in 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 is expected to be broadly similar to 2024-2025. In addition to rural payments systems this budget will be used to maintain and support a number of other IT systems such as the Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS), Estate Management Database (EMA), Drawing Office, Plant Health, Livestock Inspection System (LIS). These systems collectively assure eligibility for payments, support of inspections, responding to legislative requirements and supporting corporate systems.

ARE IT/Digital services support a range of other government departments, functions and agencies including NatureScot, Forestry, Estates Management, Plant Health and Livestock Inspections meaning our IT / Digital services support a wider range of stakeholders.

The latest data showing the number of school leavers in each initial destination (three months after the end of the school year) by local authority and nationally for each year since 2009-10 can be found in Table L2.1a in the supplementary tables published alongside the Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 7: 2025 edition. The supplementary tables with data on initial destinations are available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-for-attainment-and-initial-leaver-destinations-no-7-2025-edition/documents/.

The latest data showing the number of school leavers in each follow-up destination (nine months after the end of the school year) by local authority and nationally for each year since 2009-10 can be found in Table L2.2 in the supplementary tables published alongside the Summary statistics for Follow-Up Leaver Destinations, No. 6: 2024 Edition. The supplementary tables with data on follow-up destinations are available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-follow-up-leaver-destinations-no-6-2024-edition/documents/.

The latest data showing the number of school leavers in each initial destination (three months after the end of the school year) by local authority and nationally for each year since 2009-10 can be found in Table L2.1a in the supplementary tables published alongside the Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations, No. 7: 2025 edition. The supplementary tables with data on initial destinations are available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-for-attainment-and-initial-leaver-destinations-no-7-2025-edition/documents/.

The latest data showing the number of school leavers in each follow-up destination (nine months after the end of the school year) by local authority and nationally for each year since 2009-10 can be found in Table L2.2 in the supplementary tables published alongside the Summary statistics for Follow-Up Leaver Destinations, No. 6: 2024 Edition. The supplementary tables with data on follow-up destinations are available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/summary-statistics-follow-up-leaver-destinations-no-6-2024-edition/documents/.

Waiting times for first clinician led chronic pain appointments are currently reported every quarter on the PHS website, Publications - Public Health Scotland. The Pain Management Service Delivery Framework Implementation Plan contains a specific action to work with PHS to improve how we capture and report national data on chronic pain. The current focus of which is to review and improve waiting times data for first appointments. We are considering the feasibility of collecting and reporting national data on waits for return appointments.