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The list of public appointments by public body, which was published on 25 March 2025, is an exhaustive list of Ministerial regulated public appointments only. Ministerial regulated public appointments are those governed by the Ethical Standards Commissioner and the Code of Practice for Public Appointments (2022). The Code requires publication.

The list is intended to be published to always reflect recently made appointments. It was last published in October 2024, January 2025 and February 2025. It was corrected on 25 March 2025 following the identification of errors.

Officials commenced a process of methodically checking the full list for accuracy on 25 March 2025. Once complete, the list will be re-published.

The Constitutional Futures Division (CFD) was established to take forward the government’s commitment to providing the people of Scotland with information about independence through the development of the Building a New Scotland (BANS) series of papers. Within the Scottish Government a division is part of a directorate, and CFD was part of the Constitution Directorate. Following the successful delivery of a suite of papers in the BANS series, and with the series due to conclude with the publication of a final overview paper, CFD ceased to be a standalone division in January 2025 and its ongoing work was merged into that of the wider Constitution Directorate.

Local authorities are public bodies and can only place certain people on their allocation schemes or waiting lists for housing, this is set out in legislation, and immigration status is a consideration. There is however no legislation requiring Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) to consider immigration status when allocating social housing. RSLs are independent organisations regulated by the Scottish Housing Regulator who must make their decisions to allocate housing within the law and according to their own policies. However a RSL would discuss rent, affordability, income and benefit entitlement with any prospective tenant, before making an offer.

The Scottish government publish official workforce statistics on a quarterly basis. The latest available data, is for December 2024 Scottish Government workforce information - gov.scot.

The following table provides details of the working location of directly employed Scottish Government staff, split by Local authority, Full time/Part time working pattern and Permanent/Temporary status.

The Scottish Government recognises the investment and funding challenges associated with the transition to a net zero and climate adapted economy. Meeting the costs will require close working between the public and private sectors domestically, as well as with our trading partners. Delivering our climate and economic growth ambitions will provide opportunities that support jobs, trade, investment, and growth.

The Carbonomics report notes that promoting local manufacturing (deglobalisation and protectionism) can increase costs for certain clean technologies, thus slowing the overall rate of global decarbonisation. There is therefore a trade-off between fostering domestic industries and ensuring affordable clean energy solutions from abroad.

Global challenges require global solutions; it is through cooperation, not isolation, that the world will tackle the climate crisis. Scotland is committed to a rules-based trade agenda and supports open, fair, and transparent trade. Trade should also be a lever to increase progress towards a green economy, including through increasing trade in environmental goods and services.

Whilst this information is publicly available, I can advise that 25 High Speed Trains are currently in operation on Scotland’s railway.

I can advise Parliament that the Scottish Government’s £30 million Electric Vehicle (EV) Infrastructure Fund has now been fully allocated to local authorities to enable them to work in partnership with the private sector to attract matched investment and deliver approximately 6,000 additional public charge points across Scotland by 2030.

Scotland currently has over 6,800 public charge points and is on track to meet its commitment of enabling approximately 24,000 additional public EV charge points by 2030, the majority of which will be funded and delivered by the private sector.

This fund prioritises the delivery of new public EV charging infrastructure in those parts of Scotland less likely to benefit from stand-alone private sector investment in public charging infrastructure.

I can further advise that through the fund, the Scottish Government has provided the North of Scotland partnership, consisting of Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Highland and Moray councils, with over £7 million to transform charging infrastructure across the North of Scotland.

Our investment has enabled this partnership to leverage over £4.9 million of additional matched private sector investment over the next three years to ensure that drivers of electric vehicles in the North of Scotland experience the availability, accessibility and reliability of public EV charging they need and deserve.

The Agenda for Change pay deal focuses on rewarding staff such as nurses, midwives, paramedics, porters and others for the dedication and effort they provide to NHS Scotland. Delivering a renewed and stronger NHS is a key commitment for the Scottish Government and at the heart of that are our hard-working healthcare staff who we want to ensure feel valued and rewarded.

The Scottish Government recognise that workforce and pay costs driven by a period of prolonged high inflation are now contributing to significant budget pressures across health and social care, the wider Scottish Government budget and the whole of the public sector. This Government has been clear that the extent of these challenges will not be addressed in a single year and we will continue to make the tough choices necessary to support sustainable public finances, whilst also seeking to minimise the impact on frontline services as far as possible.

(a) The following 14 contracts were awarded to ‘The Lines Between’ by the Scottish Government in Fiscal Year 2024-25:

• Research on Fishers Behaviour towards Compliance & Enforcement.
• Adult Disability Payment Review.
• Options Study for Developing a Mental Health Patient Experience Survey for Scotland.
• Consultation Analysis: UEFA Euro 2028 – Commercial Rights Protection.
• Analysis of Responses to Crofting Consultation 2024.
• Analysis for Annual Procurement Reports.
• Analysis of responses to a consultation on proposed changes to energy and environmental standards of the Scottish Building Regulations.
• 'Moving On' Consultation Analysis Evaluation.
• Single-use cups charge consultation analysis.
• Review of Charity Regulation – Consultation Analysis.
• Universal Definition of 'Care Experience' Consultation Evaluation Analysis.
• Analysis of Consultation Responses to the Scottish Government Equality and Human Rights Mainstreaming Strategy.
• Future of Foster Care Consultation Analysis.
• Carer Benefits Evaluation: Case Transfer and Carer Support Payment.

Further information on the contracts can be found on Public Contracts Scotland https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/

(b) 'The Lines Between' have not yet received any funded commissions for FY 2025-26. However, they were successful in bidding for the Social Research and Analysis Framework contract and were added on 1 May 2025.