Chamber and committees

Information in respect of journey times of cases brought to court is produced by the Scottish Government, using data provided both by COPFS and SCTS. These are national figures and are not produced for individual courts or Procurator Fiscal Offices.

I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:

COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis. Any data in respect of the number of people currently being precognosed is updated each day and cannot be recalculated retrospectively or aggregated. This question cannot be readily answered by COPFS.

The following table details the number of criminal cases marked no further action - now insufficient admissible evidence in the financial year 2023-24. The count is by case.

The Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund forms part of the broader Affordable Housing Supply Programme which is based on flexible grant funding arrangements to ensure that affordable housing projects across Scotland, which are identified by local authorities as a priority, can be supported. Local authorities should engage with a range of organisations in their localities, including public sector employers, key agencies, including Highlands and Islands Enterprise and South of Scotland Enterprise, as well as local businesses and registered social landlords to develop proposals for use of the fund for consideration by the relevant More Homes Division area team.

Local authorities and registered social landlords are expected to agree the level of grant required for property acquisitions through the Rural Affordable Homes for Key Workers Fund with the relevant More Homes Division area team. This should reflect the types and valuations of properties being targeted for purchase, as well as likely required investment to ensure quality standards are met.

Further information on acquisitions through the Affordable Housing Supply Programme, including those through the fund, is available on the Scottish Government website.

This is a matter for the Scottish Charity Regulator. It is a non-ministerial office and its operations are independent of Scottish Ministers. The information requested is not held centrally and questions about any operational matters should be put directly to the Scottish Charity Regulator.

The ScotRail HSTs fleet is safe, and will continue to remain safe; this has been validated by an independent review of the HSTs’ design and construction, and endorsed by the industry safety regulator, the Office of Rail and Road.

Operational safety is a matter for ScotRail Trains and Network Rail, who are jointly responsible for the management of safety risks on Scotland’s Railway.

Based on Scottish Government forecasts for 2029-30 the total Fiscal Resource Budget is forecast to be £60.2 billion. Social Security expenditure for 2029-30, as forecast by the Scottish Fiscal Commission, is £8.9 billion. Therefore, Social Security expenditure is estimated to be 14.8 per cent of the total Fiscal Resource Budget in 2029-30.

Further details on plans to decarbonise Scotland’s Rail Network will be published in the refreshed Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan, which is now expected to be published in Spring 2025. It will outline a staged approach to creating a decarbonised rail system by 2045 and increasing from the current 75% of rail journeys which are already decarbonised.

The Scottish Government welcomes the publication of the interim report and thanks the Chair, Edel Harris, for her work. The Scottish Government is carefully considering these initial findings and looks forward to the publication of the final report in July 2025. A written response to that final report will be published within six months of its submission.