Chamber and committees

The following litigation requires to be concluded:

Imran Ahmad v the Lord Advocate: Proof before answer was heard by Lord Harrower in respect of quantum between 1-10 March 2023 and Lord Harrower made avizandum. The decision in this case is still pending.

David Grier v the Lord Advocate: On 12 April 2023 the Court of Session refused Mr Grier’s application for leave to appeal to the UK Supreme Court. Mr Grier thereafter filed an application for Permission to Appeal directly to the UK Supreme Court on 9 May 2023.

Shelagh McCall KC has been instructed to independently consider reports of criminal conduct from a legal perspective in relation to the prosecutions connected to Rangers Football Club. This process is in place to ensure that any allegations of criminal conduct are considered fairly and objectively.

The aforementioned cases and the work of Shelagh McCall KC remain ongoing at this time.

The Scottish Government and the Lord Advocate have committed to a process of a judge-led inquiry once all legal proceedings relating to the malicious prosecutions are at an end. The exact form and timing of an inquiry will be determined once all legal proceedings are concluded.

The Justice Directorate has been identified as the directorate to lead on providing advice to Ministers.

The Scottish Government is aware of this drug, to date there have been two detections in Scotland that we have been made aware of through the Welsh WEDINOS programme.

Public Health Scotland, through their Rapid Action Drug Alerts and Response (RADAR) programme, are continuing to monitor this situation. Currently xylazine is not routinely screened for in police or post-mortem toxicology throughout the UK, but we will keep this under review and future decisions around adding this to toxicology screening in Scotland would be made by the RADAR pathology and toxicology network.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD, the UK Government’s drug advisory body) New Psychoactive Substance committee are also monitoring the availability of this substance and are conducting an evidence review which will also inform action in Scotland. Public Health Scotland continue to lead on the ongoing development of RADAR which provides essential and real-time data on drug trends and harms to ensure a quick response to what is happening on the ground, including providing vital public health alerts, such as they issued around nitazenes in January 2023.

Yes. The £2m programme awarded in 2021, managed by Scottish Centre for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) went live with an initial £600,000 “digital pioneers” project funding call in April 2023. More information on the programme can be found here - https://tec.scot/programme-areas/digital-inclusion .

Local authorities can use Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders as set out in the Local Authorities' Traffic Orders (Procedure) (Scotland) Regulations 1999. As with all other Traffic Regulation Orders, local authorities are under no obligation to inform the Scottish Government when they use these measures and as such we do not hold an accurate record of how many have been deployed during this time period.

Details of Traffic Regulation Orders published by local authorities, including Experimental Traffic Regulation Orders, can be found on Tell Me Scotland's website at: Public Information Notices for Scotland | Tellmescotland .

To date one call-off contract has been awarded under this Framework Agreement. This was awarded to Stantec UK Ltd for the first of a planned series of community needs assessments as part of the Islands Connectivity Plan, this one looking at ferry connections to Cowal and Rosneath.

Transport Scotland publishes the results of all regulated procurements through contract award notices on the Public Contracts Scotland website. In addition to the award of contracts and conclusion of framework agreements, we also apply this requirement to call-off contracts awarded under framework agreements; these include the contract with Turner and Townsend for work associated with the provision of the Clyde and Hebrides ferry services.

This is a matter for ScotRail. The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government will publish the British Sign Language National Plan 2023 – 2029 by 31 October 2023, as per our duties as set out by the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015.

The following table below details the settlement costs and expenses paid to litigants from all concluded civil cases relating to the prosecutions arising from the acquisition and administration of Rangers FC, broken down by financial year.

The Scottish Government recognises the important role of primary care teams in delivering care to patients living with advanced, serious illness or at the end of life, and their loved ones.

The Daffodil Standards are one initiative to support general practice teams to improve the care that they provide to people near the end of life. The Scottish Government does not collect data centrally on participation in the Standards. Further information about the Standards and the GP practices working with them is available on the RCGP website.