The Scottish Government is committed to making savings by driving key efficiency programmes such as Scottish Single Estates, Commercial Value for Money (CVfM), Collaborative Procurement frameworks, Oracle Cloud implementation, the Intelligence Automation Centre of Excellence, Digital programme, and Revenue Raising. This work reflects our approach of building these key efficiency programmes into the overall PSR approach.

There has been strong progress across these programmes, with cashable savings delivered. Our Single Scottish Estate, National Collaborative Procurement, Commercial Value for Money and Digital programmes are collectively securing cost avoidance and cash releasing savings, expected to reach up to £280 million over a two-year period by the end of 2024-25, with further projected savings of nearly £300 million over the following two financial years to the end of 2026-27.

The Single Scottish Estate (SSE) will help us have a more efficient approach to public sector property management, optimising costs, enabling the delivery of excellent public services and providing staff with great places to work, recognising the shifts in working culture since the pandemic. The SSE engages with all parts of the public sector including health and local authorities as well as central government bodies. The programme is currently focused on the public sector administrative estate and is undertaking a number of location-based reviews and projects including across Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow. We are estimating £50-80m total savings from now to 2028, with associated carbon reductions and improvements in service delivery to the public. An overall total of £36m of direct Single Scottish Estate benefits have been secured.

Collaborative procurement can help public bodies achieve better value for money, through consolidating volumes, driving efficiencies and social value and making better use of skills and resources. The Scottish Government establishes national collaborative procurement framework agreements on behalf of the whole Scottish public sector. There are opportunities to increase Scotland’s collaborative buying power by expanding the use of National Collaborative Frameworks across the Scottish public sector, leading to a significant increase in financial benefits delivered on a cross-sectoral basis via economies of scale. Building on current financial benefits delivered annually of around £130m, made up of both cost avoidance and cash savings, work is underway to scope the potential to scale up the service offered by the national collaborative procurement team.

The Commercial Value for Money programme (CVfM) is providing commercial expertise and support across all Scottish Government expenditure to support increased value for money through the delivery of monetary efficiencies and/or increased impactful policy outcomes. This includes work in areas such as grant alignment, commercial scrutiny of costs, development and implementation of performance monitoring and reporting to show the effectiveness of SG spend, development of novel funding approaches and increased leverage of SG spend. Almost £7m of cashable and £600k of non-cashable savings have already been delivered, with little or no impact on policy delivery. The CVfM programme is projected to save up to £50m over the next 5 years whilst also supporting other efficiency work.

Meanwhile, the Intelligent Automation Centre of Excellence has already been realised significant benefits within government and several core agencies. £3.9M in cost-avoidance benefits have been achieved to date with a projected £14.5M by 28-29.

As the PSR programme develops further, building on the data and capacity around savings, and the embedding of reform and efficiency in the budget process, we will look to drive and quantify other and future savings opportunities.

The Scottish Government recognises that the present system of presenting paper copies of powers of attorneys as proof of authority to act could be improved by digitisation of the process. Digital activation codes are used in England and appear to be a successful way of doing this. Digitisation of this process in Scotland is an operational decision within the remit of the Office of the Public Guardian, which is part of the independent Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service.

The Scottish Government cannot deliver reform alone and is working with local government, public bodies, third sector and the private sector to build a consensus and common vision for achieving sustainable public services and establishing the infrastructure that enables us to collectively make progress.

The Scottish Government has not engaged any consultancies in developing or progressing the Public Service Reform Programme.

In the 2023-24 financial year, the number of case-accused with at least one charge that resulted in them receiving either a deprivation or disqualification order was eighty-five.

The Scottish Government officials are in regular discussions with the other UK administrations on bovine EID.

The number of properties expected to be liable for the Basic Property Rate (BPR) in 2025-2026 before any reliefs are applied is presented in the following tables, broken down in Table 1 by property class, and in Table 2 by council area.

Property class is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, and does not necessarily accurately reflect the use of a property. The Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors.

These tables are based on the non-domestic valuation roll as at 1 October 2024.

Table 1: Number of properties expected to be liable for BPR by class, to the nearest 10

The Scottish Government’s Drugs and Alcohol Workforce Action Plan 2023–2026 outlines a range of measures aimed at supporting individuals with lived experience of substance use to enter employment.

The Scottish Government is aware of, and is reviewing the implementation of, the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) scheme for adults in treatment for alcohol and drug dependence in England. The data linkage report published in December 2024 has provided valuable insights.

The Scottish Government regularly meets with representatives from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) within the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to share knowledge and best practice regarding workforce development. We will continue to collaborate with OHID and explore how the findings from the report may inform our ongoing approach.

The Health and Social Care Standards, published in 2017, set out the expectation that care should be provided by health and social care professionals based on the most relevant evidence, guidance and best practice, as is appropriate to their profession and patient group. In July 2022 we wrote to health boards and GPs to raise awareness of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines and highlight key changes in practice, and these remain the most current national guidelines on the management of ME/CFS.

While the Scottish Government sets the strategic policy for the NHS in Scotland, it is NHS Boards and healthcare professionals locally who have responsibility for both service delivery and ensuring people receive the right care for them, taking into account relevant guidance, local service needs and priorities for investment.

In conclusion, it is for NHS Boards to determine what clinical interventions they offer, while giving regard to the considerations above.

The Scottish Government supported a meeting with NFUS and DG Sante on this matter held earlier this year. No concerns were raised or foreseen by EU officials on the use of UHF in Scotland.

Following the Scottish Budget, announced on 4 December 2024, details on the future of the Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund will be finalised following the 2025-26 budget approval.