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A phased transition approach to the new Future Support Framework is outlined in the Agriculture Reform Route Map. Tiers 1 and 2 are the tiers that most closely resemble the current Basic Payment Scheme and Greening payments and will receive at least 70% of the available budget. The announcement at February’s NFU Scotland Conference means that the majority of funding will remain open to the majority of farmers and crofters.

Announcements on the future budget split between Tier 1 and 2 will be provided in due course.

NHS Borders are at Level 3 of the NHS Support and Intervention Framework and the Board continue to receive tailored support from Scottish Government. Support includes, a dedicated Finance Support Lead, advice on savings delivery in pursuit of 3% recurring savings against baseline budget, resource from the Finance Delivery Unit to improve capacity in the finance team including financial analysis, reporting tools, and stakeholder management, and non-recurring funding to bolster the Board’s finance team. The FDU have also attended Executive Board meetings to challenge the financial position and support path to balance.

NHS Scotland is facing an unprecedented financial challenge, but all NHS Boards continue to have a statutory responsibility to reach a break-even financial position.

NHS Borders delivered a deficit outturn in 2023-24 and continue to manage financial pressures in 2024-25. Scottish Government are working with NHS Borders to create a credible and realistic path to balance and, once that path balance has been achieved, the Board would start to repay outstanding brokerage.

UK commercial fishing licences provide general authority for the registered vessel to fish in the UK EEZ, subject to specific conditions detailed in the licence. The UK Fisheries Act 2020 sets out the ‘equal access objective’, stating that, "access of UK fishing boats to any area within British fishery limits is not affected by- (a) the location of the fishing boat’s home port, or (b) any other connection of the fishing boat, or any of its owners, to any place in the United Kingdom."

UK fishing licences may also be retained as an "entitlement" which means that that there is no active fishing vessel linked to the licence entitlement at that time. That entitlement may be re-activated in the future by being transferred or sold and then attached to an active UK vessel.

The information provided in the following table is the number of "active" UK licences - i.e. where a fishing vessel is linked to the licence - as of 1 January in each year. As noted above, whilst UK fishing licences permit activity in all UK waters, the number of active UK licences is not necessarily representative of UK vessels' fishing activity in Scottish waters.

NHS Borders are at Level 3 of the NHS Support and Intervention Escalation Framework and the Board continue to receive tailored support from Scottish Government

Under the terms of this tailored support, the Scottish Government Financial Delivery Unit maintain frequent contact with NHS Borders Executives regarding its financial position. At present, these conversations are focussed on securing a credible path to balance and, once this has been established and on course to be achieved, conversations will commence on brokerage repayment.

For the Scottish Government to meet our commitment of ensuring that at least 1000 people receive public funding for their stay in Residential Rehabilitation, it is largely dependent on capacity in the residential rehabilitation providers who provide the service, rather than the alcohol and drug partnership workforce.

The Scottish Stroke Care Standards are designed to drive effective service delivery and improve patient outcomes. Monitoring of performance against stroke standards through the Scottish Stroke Care Audit allows us to identify where challenges are being faced in the delivery of high-quality stroke care and implement quality improvements.

We recognise the standards are challenging and continue to expect Health Boards to identify aspects of their stroke services which do not meet these standards and to work to improve their standards of care locally.

We continually assess the delivery of evidence-based stroke care, as recommended in the Progressive Stroke Pathway, via the Scottish Stroke Improvement Programme Board review process. This allows for an evaluation of Board performance, identification of areas of challenge and the formulation of local action plans to improve the delivery of stroke care.

The Scottish Government has not provided guidance on this matter. It is for Health Boards to ensure that NHS pharmaceutical services are in place to meet the needs of their local population.

ScotRail was brought into the public sector under Scottish Government control.

Transport Scotland carries out, on behalf of Scottish Ministers, the role of the Franchising Authority. ScotRail Trains Limited (SRT) is a train operating company who provides certain rail passenger services.

Scottish Rail Holdings (SRH) is an arm’s length entity, who manages and oversees delivery of SRT services.

The next phase of the Women’s Health Plan is in the early stages of development.

The ambition of the Women’s Health Plan is that women and girls enjoy the best possible health, throughout their lives. This remains the ambition of the Scottish Government and will continue to be our guiding principle as we consider our next steps for the Women’s Health Plan following the end of this initial three year phase in August 2024.

This next phase will be developed in collaboration with women and girls, including our lived experience stakeholder group, clinical experts, other relevant stakeholders and our Women’s Health Champion, using the most up-to-date evidence base.

Any future priorities will be determined in partnership with our stakeholders, and informed by women and girls, so are yet to be decided.