Whilst services on the main Edinburgh to Glasgow via Falkirk High route ran every 15 minutes prior to the Covid pandemic, ScotRail reported an underutilisation of resources, which was addressed with ScotRail’s ‘Fit for Future’ timetable re-shuffle in 2022.

With 4 services per hour in peak times, and 2 services per hour off peak on week days, this route is currently served well and provides the required capacity at the times people need it.

ScotRail monitors the passenger demand closely and wherever possible, increases capacity where it is required. As part of May 2023 timetable change ScotRail increased the number of services on Saturdays, which is now the busiest day on this route. As a result, passengers enjoy 4 services per hour on Saturdays during the day.

The Scottish Government is aware of the regulations set out in the UK Social Housing Regulation Act 2023 and the plans to introduce Awaab’s Law by setting out specified timeframes for addressing health hazards. This reflects similar rights already in place for social housing tenants in Scotland.

Under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001, Scottish secure tenants and short Scottish secure tenants currently have the right to have certain urgent repairs carried out by their landlord within a given timescale. The Right to Repair scheme applies to all tenants of local authorities and housing associations. The list of qualifying repairs is set out in The Scottish Secure Tenants (Right to Repair) Regulations 2002, which also sets out the maximum permissible period for completing repairs, and the compensation that is due to tenants where these timescales are not met.

This sits alongside existing requirements for social landlords in Scotland as part of the Scottish Social Housing Charter, monitored by the Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR). The Charter includes expected outcomes on the customer/landlord relationship and on the quality of housing. Landlords need to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard, which requires that homes are healthy, safe and free from serious disrepair.

As part of their review of the Annual Return on the Scottish Social Housing Charter (ARC), SHR are engaging with the sector to develop updated indicators for tenant and resident safety.

SHR aim to confirm the revised ARC indicators by January 2025, with the new ARC being in place for collection year 2025/26. In the meantime, SHR will use Annual Assurance Statements to require landlords to provide specific assurance on their compliance with their tenant and resident safety obligations, including their performance in dealing with instances of damp and mould.

Scottish building regulations already set requirements for new buildings and new building work, including entertainment venues, that are intended to provide safe, unassisted and convenient access to and within buildings. However, building regulations are not applied retrospectively to existing buildings.

Attention should be drawn to the Scottish Government's response to S6W-28573 on 12 August 2024 noting that the Scottish Government expects building owners and managers to be familiar with their duties under equalities legislation and where necessary make reasonable adjustments following the relevant codes of practice published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Scottish Government is aware that the regeneration masterplan is being developed for North Laurieston although there has been limited engagement to date.

The Scottish Government is a partner in Transforming Communities: Glasgow (TC:G) along with Glasgow City Council and Wheatley Homes Glasgow to oversee the delivery of a regeneration and development programme across 8 Transformational Regeneration Areas (TRA). The North Laurieston area falls within the Laurieston TRA. The masterplan development is being led by New Gorbals Housing Association and Glasgow City Council planning department, but it is anticipated that TC:G partners will be a consultee in the masterplan going forward.

The Scottish Government is aware that passengers, ScotRail staff and other stakeholders hold a wide range of views about alcohol on trains.

Ministers continue to consider this wide range of diverging views in line with the broad range of recommendations made in our report on women and girls’ safety on public transport and in the context of ongoing initiatives to tackle antisocial behaviour on public transport.

A Discussion Paper on the Infrastructure Levy was published in June and comments were invited until 30 September. We are carefully considering the responses received and will use the feedback to inform how to proceed. An update on next steps will be provided shortly.

A child losing a parent to a drug-related death is a tragedy. We understand that children, young people and families affected by substance use must be supported in their own right. Our framework to improve holistic family support sets out principles of how we will improve support for families affected by drugs and alcohol by taking a whole family approach and using family inclusive practice. The framework is supported by investment totalling £6.5 million per year over the life of the Parliament.

In partnership with an expert national working group, we are working with local areas to improve family support and implement family inclusive practice across alcohol and drug services. This, alongside our work to support young people affected by substance use, will support the delivery of The Promise by making significant change in the way services work with families.

Additionally, we are investing nearly £4 million to expand the successful Routes model, run by Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol and Drugs. Routes supports young people with substance use in their families, by helping them meet their own goals and break inter-generational cycles of addiction. With investment from Scottish Government, Routes will be expanded to Falkirk, Aberdeenshire, Renfrewshire, North Lanarkshire, East Lothian and Orkney.

Funding of over £3.5 million was issued between 2021-2024 to support 12 pilot projects across Scotland to deliver a single point of contact (SPoC) to people diagnosed with cancer. A further £1.5 million during financial year 2024-25 has ensured continuity of this programme of work.

A scalability assessment, commenced in early 2024 and led by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, will consider how we best support the design and delivery of SPoC services for the future to ensure that all patients with cancer in Scotland benefit from the approach. Each project is actively evaluating their local impact to support this work.

Of the 12 Single Point of Contact (SPoC) pilot projects, 4 fully include a service for haemato-oncology patients in NHS Borders, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Highland and NHS Western Isles.

Further to this, NHS Grampian and NHS Fife SPoC projects have a navigation team to support patients from point of cancer referral to diagnosis and is able to support those with blood cancer.

Non-domestic rates are administered by local authorities in accordance with the relevant legislation. Under that statutory framework, the award of discretionary reliefs is a matter for individual local authorities. In line with the recommendation from the independent Barclay Review of Non-Domestic Rates to remind councils of the arrangements for reliefs and to provide better public information on reliefs and the legislative framework, the Scottish Government publishes an annual Local Government Finance Circular providing information for each non-domestic rates relief, including discretionary reliefs like Hardship Relief or the discretionary element of Rural Relief.