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Over the next five-year investment period, the Scottish Government has committed to invest £4.2 billion in the Scottish rail infrastructure in line with our High-Level Output Specification.

The total invested to 9th December 2023 on projects to reduce journey times between Aberdeen and the Central Belt by 2026 is £15.5m. Of this figure, £8.7m has been spent on the Aberdeen – Central Belt Journey Time Improvement project, and £6.8m has been spent on the project to improve rail line speeds in the Barnhill area between Perth and Dundee. The investment at Barnhill remodelled a junction between the Tay Viaduct at Perth and Barnhill to increase line speeds over it from 20mph to 50mph. It is a direct enabler for the plan to reduce rail journey times between the Central Belt and the North-East, improving connectivity and enhancing capacity for both passenger and freight trains on the route.

The Scottish Government is continuing to develop the business case for Aberdeen to Central Belt rail enhancements. This will be considered in in the coming months and within the context of the funding available for rail enhancements next year. We remain firmly committed to infrastructure investment as a key factor in securing economic growth and high-quality public infrastructure across Scotland, including spending over £1.6 billion in 2024-25 to operate, maintain and improve Scotland’s railway.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information, however, it may be available from local Health Boards.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information, however, it may be available from local Health Boards.

We currently have no plans to amend the Animals and Wildlife (Penalties, Protections and Powers) (Scotland) Act 2020 to allow mountain hares to be hunted for the purposes of falconry.

From a funding perspective there was no funding committed to the National Care Service as a result of the original Financial Memorandum, its purpose was only to show, as a result of the Bill, the potential additionality of cost that could be incurred were the Bill to progress as introduced. This is also the case for the revision to the Financial Memorandum and the associated Shared Accountability costing.

The commitment to increase social care funding by at least £840 million over this Parliament has been surpassed 2 years early, with funding for social care increasing by over £1 billion compared to 2021-22. Furthermore, the 2024-25 draft Budget supports services with investment of over £2 billion to support health and social care integration.

Despite increased investment and vision of the National Care Service, it is noted that the system is under extreme pressure as a result of the ongoing impacts of Covid, Brexit and inflation. We will continue to work with partners across health and social to address these challenges and to take forward the reform that is essential for delivery of financially, environmentally and socially sustainable services for the people of Scotland.

The Scottish Government has a long-standing commitment to the principles of Fair-Work as we recognise and value the work that the social care sector do.

The £12 minimum pay-rate from April 2024 for Adult Social Care workers represents a 14.3% increase for these workers in the last two years; with pay rising from at least £10.50 per hour in April 2022.

Four out of five people who will benefit from this uplift in pay are women. Increasing pay not only helps the workforce in question but will also positively impact on our wider priorities on child poverty, Fair Work and post-Covid pandemic recovery in the health and care sector.

The creation of the National Care Service will help to provide consistency in further improved pay and conditions, access to training and development and ensuring a career in social care is attractive and rewarding – but we are beginning to make those improvements now .

I am delighted that both Staff Side and NHS Board representatives have worked in partnership with us to undertake an extensive review of the Agenda for Review framework, which included the existing pay structure.

I am now considering the recommendations of the review alongside the wider impact of any action we take and the budget that we need to operate within.

We will continue to engage fully with our partners on all aspects of the review, including next steps.

Decisions on the retrieval of loaned equipment are made at Board level and the Scottish Government do not have access to this information.

We do not allocate our budget at parliamentary region level. We issue resource planning assumptions at a local authority level and the levels for 2023-24 can be found on our webpage Affordable housing: resource planning assumptions to councils 2021-2022 to 2025-2026 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

Figures for 2024-25 will be reviewed once the 2024-25 budget has been formally approved by parliament.

Local authorities publish their Strategic Housing Investment Plans on an annual basis which outline their housing priorities over a five year period. We do not have estimates for the number of new affordable homes that will be built in the Highlands and Islands Region in each of the next ten years.