Chamber and committees

The final subsidy for ScotRail for the financial year 2024-25 will be known when the accounts for this year have been finalised and published. Subsidy provided to other train operating companies is a matter for the UK Department for Transport, Transport for London and the Welsh Government.

As detailed in my letter to NZET Committee on 17 December 2024, the technological and financial landscape has changed significantly since the Decarbonisation Action Plan was first published. The Scottish Government currently faces significant financial and budgetary pressures. As a consequence of these challenges, it is clear that the 2020 Decarbonisation Action Plan commitment to decarbonise rail services by 2035 can no longer be met. A revised target of 2045 is planned for the refreshed Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan.

The replacement for ScotRail’s High Speed Trains (HST) is expected to be more energy efficient than the HSTs and therefore will significantly reduce emissions, a direct contribution to decarbonisation.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally as local authorities are responsible for paying the Scottish Recommended Allowance for Foster and Kinship Carers.

The Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database only contains information for offences that have records of at least one prosecution under which that offence was the main crime.

The Environmental Regulation (Enforcement Measures) (Scotland) Order 2015 provides SEPA with the power to issue penalties and accept undertakings for a range of environmental offences.

The latest available information is for the financial year 2022-23 and is provided in the following table.

Number of people prosecuted for environmental crimes, where main crime, 2018-19 to 2022-23.

The assigning of a hearing for deferral of sentence is an order of the court and is recorded within the court’s interlocutor for each case.

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.

Information in respect 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.

The following table details the average times taken to complete a FAI, up to the conclusion of evidence. This does not include the average time of issue by the court of any determination, following an inquiry, the issue of which is the statutory definition of its conclusion in terms of Section 30(4) of the Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc (Scotland) Act 2016.

The following table shows the costs incurred for expert witnesses in each of the last 5 years.