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The Scottish Government do not hold this information. It is a matter for UK shipyards to come to commercial agreements on guarantees with financial institutions as stipulated in shipbuilding procurements.

The total cost, to date of chartering the MV Alfred amounts to £21.4m broken down as follows: April 2023 - February 2024 totalled £9.1m and March 2024 – March 2025 amounts to £12.3m.

The cost includes the charter of the vessel but also variable elements around fuel, harbour dues and other costs that are dependent on the actual deployment of the vessel. Furthermore, the time on charter will be adjusted accordingly, to account for any period the vessel is out of service, and therefore not available

The number of sailings and performance were detailed in the following table

The Scottish Government has maintained its commitment to No Compulsory Redundancy since 2007 and there is no change to the commitment set out in the multi-year 2024-25 Public Sector pay Policy published on 30 May 2024.

The 2025-26 Draft Budget has also set out a 10-year programme of Public Service Reform to Parliament, with a strong focus on the data, levers and workforce that will drive efficiency. To enable this work, we will deliver an Invest to Save fund in 2025-26, backed by up to £30 million of funding recognising the need to catalyse efficiency, effectiveness and productivity projects as part of the PSR programme.

The number of treatments (including enhanced examinations) is compiled on the basis of claims made to Practitioner Services for payment within agreed working schedules and monthly activity is therefore not always presented on a directly comparable basis. For example, the September payment schedule period contained 20 working days which is lower than the average schedule period (c.24 working days), resulting in a small reduction to prior months’ claims.

Practitioners Services will periodically close the schedules to allow other payments to be made to dentists, such as quarterly allowance payments.

British Transport Police are responsible for enforcing the alcohol ban and responding to reports of antisocial behaviour on ScotRail trains. The Scottish Government through Transport Scotland engages with British Transport Police in considerations over the future of the ban and in the wider context of tackling antisocial behaviours on the rail network.

It is acknowledged that a greater British Transport Police resource with increased visibility on the rail network could make a difference to enforcement of the alcohol ban. However, as the Scottish Government has no direct responsibility over British Transport Police, we must work within the resource it has and continue to encourage British Transport Police to work more effectively with ScotRail wherever possible.

The mental health support for police officers and police staff is a matter for the Chief Constable.

In line with Police Scotland’s ‘People Strategy 2024–27’, a ‘Health and Wellbeing Action Plan’ was developed by Police Scotland to provide officers and staff with a range of tools and services that will enable them to take positive action in relation to their health and wellbeing.

In relation to pay for officers and staff, claims are currently being taken through the appropriate negotiating mechanisms, those being, the Police Negotiating Board for Scotland (PNBS) for Police Officers and the Joint Negotiating and Consultative Committee (JNCC) for Police Staff. The PNBS is undertaking a period of conciliation and if agreement can still not be reached, the two Sides of the PNBS would enter into an arbitration process through ACAS. Police Staff pay is also going through a process of negotiation and conciliation; this is a matter for Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority.

Jayam Dalal is a Public Appointments Adviser appointed by the Ethical Standards Commissioner for Scotland (ESC) at the commencement of regulated Ministerial appointment rounds. The Scottish Government does not retain the information requested, however, we have asked the ESC for the information who has confirmed that in the last ten years Ms Dalal has participated in 30 appointment rounds. Of those, she was a full selection panel member for sixteen rounds. For the remaining fourteen rounds, Ms Dalal provided oversight and advice at the planning phase but was not part of the selection panel.

Scottish Government regularly reviews the Scottish Ambulance Service - Special Operations Response Team (SORT) arrangements as part of an agreed Service Level Agreement. This ensures delivery of SORT capabilities are maintained across Scotland.

The Scottish Industrial Energy Transformation Fund (SIETF) has offered: £3.1 million during 2021; £6.8 million during 2022; and £7.5 million across 2023 and 2024 combined.

Many projects are implemented in the subsequent year, or years. Therefore, the funding spent per financial year (FY) has been: £2 million in FY 2022-23; £5 million in FY 2023-24; and a forecast of £9 million in FY 2024-25.

The Scottish Government highly values the vital support independent hospices provide to people and their families, as well as supporting other health and social care services and teams delivering palliative care and care around dying.

We know Scottish Hospices have been facing financial pressures due to rising costs including costs associated with providing Agenda for Change (AfC) pay parity. We have listened to these concerns, and that is why in the Scottish Budget published on 4 December we set out a commitment to provide £4 million for the hospice sector in 2025-26. From 2025-26 we will align the support we provide for pay uplifts in the Hospice sector to the outcomes of the NHS Agenda for Change negotiations. This will ensure that hospices will get the additional funding needed to see their healthcare staff match pay increases with NHS staff.