Seòmar agus comataidhean

In answer to part (a), information on spending on the Lord Advocate’s reference to the Supreme Court was published on 22 September, at: www.gov.scot/publications/independence-referendum-supreme-court-referral-legal-costs .

In answer to part (b), as is usual for any Bill, when independence legislation is introduced in Parliament the Financial Memorandum accompanying the Bill will set out a detailed estimate of costs arising from the Bill, and the Parliament will have opportunity to scrutinize this.

For the final part of your question I refer you to the answer to your previous question, S6W-11224 on 1 November 2022. 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 .

Information on how many people have been helped through the Help to Buy (Scotland) scheme can be found under the Monitoring Information Report heading here: https://www.gov.scot/policies/homeowners/help-to-buy/

Veterans who have left the armed forces within the past two years are a priority access group for the Low Cost Initiative for First-Time Buyers (LIFT) shared equity schemes, which includes the Open Market Shared Equity and New Supply Shared Equity schemes.

The Student Mental Health Plan is currently being developed in consultation with stakeholders via the Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Working Group, and is linked to the wider Mental Health & Wellbeing Strategy that is also under development. The Plan will be research and evidence informed.

Any future funding is subject to the annual budget process and Parliamentary approval of the Scottish Budget.

Serco Caledonian Sleepers Limited (SCSL) chose to submit a rebasing proposal in accordance with the provisions of the Franchise Agreement. An alternative commercial proposal was also submitted. Following careful analysis, review and negotiation with SCSL, a financial position which represented value for money to Scottish taxpayers could not be presented; subsequently neither proposal was accepted.

The Promise made it clear that adoption has an important role in providing a permanent, loving nurturing home, and that an adoption placement should not be the conclusion of the help available to adoptive families.

The Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007 gives adoptive families the right to request support from their local authority that best meets the needs of their family at a time that is right for them. A local authority who is approached is required to carry out an assessment and provide assistance to address any needs identified.

The Scottish Government provided £98,000 in 2022-23 for Adoption UK Scotland’s Therapeutic Education Support Services in Adoption (TESSA) programme which provides support to adoptive families.

We have also committed to providing £500 million in Whole Family Wellbeing Funding, over the course of this Parliament, to help transform services that support families, include those who have adopted children and young people, to ensure that they can access the support they need, where and when they need it.

ScotRail novated several contracts for the provision of Ticket Issuing Systems, across all retail channels, to ensure continuity of service and a smooth transition from Abellio ScotRail to ScotRail Trains Limited.

At this time no definitive timetable for a future procurement exercise has been agreed. ScotRail Trains Limited will work with its holding company, Scottish Rail Holdings, to ensure services are procured as required to meet ScotRail’s needs going forward. I will raise this matter directly with SRT when we next meet.

The Scottish Government has no plans to create through its agencies a capital funding stream for community services and community spaces. It is for agencies to determine how best to apply allocated funding from Government, including capital and some of them do fund community oriented activity and infrastructure. Examples would include South of Scotland Enterprise Agency, Transport Scotland and Forestry and Land Scotland.

I am pleased to confirm that the report of the working group has been submitted to me and I am today publishing the report: https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781804358184 .

I am extremely grateful to the Working Group and all those who gave evidence to them, for delivering a very thoughtful report. I have accepted the main conclusion that a Parades Commission, along the lines of the one in Northern Ireland, is not required in Scotland.

The report also highlights a range of other conclusions and recommendations on how the processes surrounding processions could be improved. I can confirm that the Scottish Government will now engage with partner organisations, including COSLA, Local Authorities, Police Scotland and human rights experts, to examine the conclusions and recommendations in more detail and consider which should be taken forward. These considerations will include looking at the practicalities of implementing the conclusions and recommendations in a way which would ensure human rights are maintained, and how we might go about piloting key recommendations.

In the letter of direction I issued to delivery partners on 23 June 2022 on implementing the MAT Standards, I asked for timed, specific plans for implementing the standards to be submitted and published. I also requested a lead officer be nominated to take responsibility for driving the necessary changes and reporting on progress for each area across the country.

I can confirm that a lead officer has been nominated by delivery partners for each of their Health and Social Care Partnership areas.

We are now scrutinising the submitted Implementation Plans to ensure they will deliver the standards and, we will be asking each area to publish their plans, which will detail the position of lead officers for each area.