The current system of personal injury litigation was arrived at after careful parliamentary consideration that led to the passing of the 2018 Act. Whilst the Scottish Government has noted the approach taken in England and Wales there are no immediate plans to make further changes.

Section 8 of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 makes provision for a qualified one-way costs shifting (QOCS) regime in Scotland and sets out when QOCS may be disapplied.

As set out in section 23(2) of the Act, the report on the 5 year review of Parts 1 to 3 must, in particular, contain information about the effect of the operation of section 8 on access to justice and the administration of Scottish courts.

The NHS Scotland Support and Intervention Framework is one of the key elements of the evidence-based approach to monitoring performance and managing risk across the NHS in Scotland.

All NHS Boards have recently been reviewed against the framework for finance purposes.

Following this review the decision was made for NHS Grampian to be escalated to Stage Three of the Framework for finance. This is based on the deterioration of the Board’s financial position during 2024-25.

Stage Three escalation comes into effect from January 2025 and involves enhanced monitoring and support including increased oversight and coordinated engagement from Scottish Government. This will include monitoring by and meetings with the Scottish Government’s Finance Delivery Unit, as well as further engagement with the NHS Scotland Director of Health and Social Care Finance.

The Scottish Government will continue to work with NHS Grampian to monitor their financial position and assist with longer term financial planning and improvement.

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods applications and payments.

Since the introduction of the Early Learning Payment in April 2019, 126,840 payments with a combined value of £34,465,468 were paid to eligible clients throughout Scotland by 30 September 2024.

Whilst the latest statistics do not contain the number of payments issued broken down by local authority area, the total value of payments issued to clients in Aberdeen City was £1,099,329 over the same period.

The next Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods publication, covering the period to the end of December 2024, will be published on 25 February 2025.

Local authorities are responsible for developing and delivering flood protection schemes and the Scottish Government provides funding to support this.

The diverse nature of the third sector means that the impacts of the increase to employers National Insurance contributions will vary by size and industry sector. However, SCVO has estimated that the cost to voluntary sector employers in Scotland is in the region of £75 million per year, plus inflation.

We will continue to work with His Majesty’s Treasury, portfolios and the sector to support an evidence-based approach and will update Parliament when new information is available.

Scottish Ministers continue to amplify the concerns of the third sector to the UK Government regarding the change to Employer National Insurance Contributions.

ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper submit their forward forecasts as part of annual budget processes. Forward forecasts of ScotRail and Caledonian Sleeper revenue and the level of subsidy required are subject to ongoing discussions between the train operating companies, Transport Scotland and Scottish Rail Holdings.

Work on the five-year review of Parts 1 to 3 of the Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Act 2018 is in progress and the Scottish Government will publish the review as soon as possible.

The Scottish Government owns two bicycles, and we do not lease any bicycles.

Our bicycles are for use in campaign marketing in respect of Net Zero messages, and are not made available to staff for use on official business.