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Financial Transactions (FTs) are allocated to Scottish Government (SG) portfolios in the annual budget process. The Scottish Government centrally monitors the flow of FTs and records the end of year value. The financial information provided is for FTs that fall within the SG’s accounting boundary and are reported within the SG Consolidated Accounts. The loan values are the net book value, after consideration of any impairment of changes to fair value through multi-year discounted cashflow models or from consideration of the impact of housing prices on the housing equity based loans. All arms-length bodies outside the SG accounting boundary will be responsible for their own reporting.

The Task Force has been meeting during 2023, most recently in August, to progress this work. Minutes of the Ministerial meetings are published on the Transport Scotland website.

Scottish Government and Orkney Islands Council (OIC) officials have also met regularly to support OIC’s consideration of options for the long term renewal of the Orkney internal ferry fleet. OIC is currently preparing an updated business case to inform future budget discussions.

We have commissioned The Lines Between to conduct research on the unmet needs of those people affected by historic forced adoption practices. The research will be published later this year and we will provide an update to Parliament at that time. The research will set out the support that those affected need to assist them on their journey of recovery, including access to records.

In total 63 submissions have been closed – 36 were closed during the 2022-23 FY and 27 have been closed during the 2023-24 FY so far. Of those, 45 have been deemed “unsuccessful”; 27 in the 2022-23 FY and 18 in the 2023-24 FY so far.

For the purposes of Scotland Innovates the following defined closure reasons have been considered “unsuccessful”:

Working with Transport Scotland, Scottish Futures Trust published a market insights report looking at electric vehicle (EV) tariffs on its website in November 2022. This report highlights significant opportunities to harness private sector investment to support the continued development of Scotland’s EV charging network.

The pace and scale of investment in the public network will increase over the coming years; and our Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Fund aims to leverage £60 million of public and private investment to increase the size of the network to 6,000 charge points by 2026.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-19366 on 21 July 2023 in relation to the desktop review and a full list of the 254 properties identified as having two or more characteristics consistent with the presence of RAAC was placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 64387). NHS Scotland Assure also published the information on their website on 15 September.

An update on progress with the national survey programme, including the list of NHS buildings where RAAC is identified, will also be published by NHS Scotland Assure.

All NHS Boards have a dedicated RAAC webpage noting their current position with RAAC in their Estate.

As of 2 October, 114 NHS properties had been physically surveyed as part of the national programme.

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

Further to my response on 5 July 2023 I can confirm that a further two local authorities have now completed and submitted their road assessments.

Six local authorities are still assessing their networks and Transport Scotland officials remain in contact with each to ensure a completed assessment of their network is received.

Overall, ScotRail passengers will benefit from significant reduction in the average fare charge. Super off-peak journeys only account for 2.7 per cent of all journeys made on ScotRail services. The purpose of this trial is to establish impact on removing time restrictions on tickets and therefore this trial is looking to establish the effect of the flat fare throughout the day, to encourage modal shift from car to rail.

The Scottish Government (SG) provides Financial Transactions (FTs) in the form of loans (such as Health Board GP Loans) and equity investments (such as the Help to Buy Scotland programme). Loans are capital amounts that are to be repaid.

FTs are managed and monitored by the SG Portfolio business area that issue them. FT outturn data is reported annually as part of the provisional and final outturn process. For those business areas falling within SG’s accounting boundary, information on performance is reported in the Scottish Government’s Consolidated Accounts. Overall FT performance is set out in the Scottish Government Annual Report, which reviews both the cash impact of schemes (advances, repayments, and write-offs) and their valuation through consideration of an annual impairment review and review of their fair value.

The Scottish Government and Agencies are responsible for reviewing and monitoring the performance of their FTs and reporting will vary: Fund managers (including Energy Savings Trust and the Scottish Investment Fund) may provide monthly or quarterly reporting alongside annual reports and multi-year programme performance reports to SG Portfolio teams. Loans paid out directly to loan applicants (such as the Help to Buy Scotland Programme) will be monitored directly by the Portfolio area responsible for them. These reports are reviewed and used to provide advice to Ministers on the future of individual programme and project funding.

The financial information provided in the answer to question S6W-21659 on 4 October 2023 is for FTs that fall within the SG’s accounting boundary and are reported within the SG Consolidated Accounts. The loan values are the net book value, after consideration of any impairment of changes to fair value through multi-year discounted cashflow models or from consideration of the impact of housing prices on the housing equity based loans. All arms-length bodies outside of the SG accounting boundary will be responsible for their own reporting.

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 launch of our National Mission on Drugs in January 2021 has meant that some of the commitments set out in the Rights, Respect, Recovery Strategy and the action plan for it, refreshed in December 2020, are being delivered in a different way. Many of the milestones are being delivered through the National Mission and others are being picked up as part of more recent Government commitments.

The Scottish Government is working closely with key stakeholders, including Education Scotland, to review and revise resources available for substance use education to ensure they are in line with best practice. This is part of wider work to provide schools with the right resources and support, through implementation of the Personal and Social Education Review, to address the issues facing children and young people today.

Completion of this work will support delivery of the recommendation from, where relevant, the Rights, Respect and Recovery Action Plan 2019-2021 as well as the similar recommendation from Drugs Death Task Force.