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The New Deal includes collaborative work on a Fiscal Framework for Local Government, alongside a new Partnership Agreement. Following the First Minister’s introductory meeting with COSLA President, Councillor Morrison, on 31 March, work on the Partnership Agreement has progressed at pace. The Scottish Government has also undertaken intensive collaborative work on a Fiscal Framework for local government and will continue to work with COSLA over the coming months to agree further substantial aspects of a Fiscal Framework alongside the Partnership Agreement.

Scottish Government Ministers and officials meet regularly with a wide range of stakeholders, including the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, to discuss areas of mutual interest.

Scottish Government Ministers and officials meet regularly with a wide range of stakeholders, including the Royal College of Anaesthetists, to discuss areas of mutual interest.

NHS Scotland Assure and partners are actively assessing NHS Scotland properties suspected to contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).

A scope of works has been developed with a RAAC specialist and a survey partner has completed a desktop review of all properties. This review is being used to prioritise and inform the approach to discovery surveys.

Completion of the discovery surveys will provide information on any remedial works required and estimated costs.

Scottish Government is funding the programme of work to assess and identify properties affected. However, the costs of remedial works is the responsibility of Health Boards to take forward.

Work to develop the prospectus is drawing on a range of officials across the organisation who will contribute to varying extents as part of their wider responsibilities in supporting the Scottish Government. The exact number of officials contributing as part of their wider responsibilities cannot be set out as the Scottish Government has no need to record this information.

Work is ongoing across government to develop a Scottish Government aviation strategy.

An online public consultation on developing the strategy concluded last year and we published an independent analysis of the responses.

The consultation covered growing international connectivity and airfreight; the transition to low and zero-emission aviation; domestic connectivity; and governance arrangements in the Highlands and Islands.

The transition to low and zero-emission aviation is also relevant to preparation of the Government’s 2023 Climate Change Plan and Just Transition Plan, and it is essential that this work be fully joined up. The aviation strategy is also being developed at the same time as the Islands Connectivity Plan, and coherence here will also be vital.

Full dualling of the A77 was not recommended by the South West Scotland Transport Study (SWSTS), because of the significant cost and environmental impacts when compared with the other transport options for improving travel on this route. In addition, full dualling does not align well with the Sustainable Investment Hierarchy as defined in the second National Transport Strategy.

Only once an intervention is recommended at the Case for Change stage, as the SWSTS represents, would the costs and benefits or disbenefits of not building an option be considered as part of the later stages of the business case process.

Research was commissioned through ClimateXChange on the subject of “Electricity system stability & security of supply in Scotland”, with a contract awarded on 13 October 2022. Analysis and drafting of the report are in progress, with completion expected in the coming months. Once complete, the exact timing for publication will then be confirmed.

The dualling of the A77 was not recommended as an outcome of the South West Transport Scotland Study published in January 2020. Instead, options for targeted improvements and road safety measures were recommended and these were subsequently appraised and formed the basis of Recommendation #40 of the second Strategic Transport Projects Review published in December 2022.

The independent review of the VNS was commissioned by the then Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans in March 2022, in line with a Victims Taskforce recommendation. The Scottish Government’s commissioning of the review reflects its commitment to ensuring that the justice system is person-centred and trauma-informed.

The review’s report was published on 12 May this year. It made 22 recommendations, including a recommendation on key data. This recommendation involves identification of key data for the VNS in order to determine how efficient and effective the scheme is, and for related purposes.

The Scottish Government intends to consider the report’s recommendations (including the recommendation on key data) in collaboration with stakeholders in the current months to fully explore their implications. We intend to take forward these discussions in the coming months as a matter of priority, and to publish a formal response to the report in due course.

The Scottish Government itself has a role to play in delivering the VNS for victims of people in the forensic mental health system who are subject to a Compulsion Order and Restriction Order (“the CORO VNS”). This means that it holds information on this aspect of this scheme. However, taking into account the small number of COROs imposed each year, the numbers of registered victims on this scheme are very small. Therefore, the Scottish Government does not publish data on the CORO VNS because this could risk identifying a victim.