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The Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS) is reserved, however the Scottish Government engages regularly with consumer organisations and fuel poverty charities on issues expected to arise from the upcoming switch-off.

I recently visited the Western Isles Citizens Advice Bureau to discuss the potentially devastating consequences on fuel poverty and access to energy if RTS meters are not upgraded on time, there and in many other communities. Consumers must not receive extortionately high or inaccurate bills or experience any interruption of supply.

To that end, I have written to the UK Government, and will seek further urgent engagement to ensure that Scottish communities are protected.

The Draft Scottish Budget on 4th December 2024, announced plans to invest £3 million in 2025-26, through a new Bright Start Breakfasts Fund which aims to expand access to free breakfast club places across Scotland, providing a healthy breakfast for children and supporting early drop off for working parents.

At this stage the Budget remains subject to Parliamentary approval, and more detail about how a new Bright Start Breakfasts fund will be administered and managed will be provided in due course.

This is a matter for the Scottish Charity Regulator. It is a non-ministerial office and its operations are independent of Scottish Ministers. The information requested is not held centrally and questions about any operational matters should be put directly to the Scottish Charity Regulator.

The final subsidy for ScotRail for the financial year 2024-25 will be known when the accounts for this year have been finalised and published. Subsidy provided to other train operating companies is a matter for the UK Department for Transport, Transport for London and the Welsh Government.

Further details on plans to decarbonise Scotland’s Rail Network will be published in the refreshed Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan, which is now expected to be published in Spring 2025. It will outline a staged approach to creating a decarbonised rail system by 2045 and increasing from the current 75% of rail journeys which are already decarbonised.

Adult Disability Payment provides financial support to recognise the additional costs of being disabled or living with a long-term health condition. Individuals who are impacted by Long COVID may be entitled to Adult Disability Payment depending on their individual circumstances.

Income replacement benefits such as Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit, which provide financial support to people of working age who are unable to work due to illness, are fully reserved to the UK Government. Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit is currently being delivered by the UK Government, prior to the delivery of Employment Injury Assistance in Scotland. The UK Government determines which conditions should be prescribed for the purposes of Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit.

The Scottish Government recognises the pressure on household budgets which is why in 2024-25 we continued to allocate around £3bn a year to policies which tackle poverty and help with the cost of living for households.  This includes providing free bus travel for over 2 million people and continuing to invest in discretionary housing payments with £90.5m being made available in 2024-25.

Additionally in November we announced a £41 million package of support for people struggling with energy costs this winter. This includes: an additional £20 million which will be provided for the Scottish Welfare Fund, to enable councils to provide more vital support to people in crisis; an additional £20 million for the Warmer Homes Scotland Scheme, which helps people install energy efficiency measures and more efficient heating systems, saving on average around £300 per year in household energy bills, and making £1 million of grant-funding available to registered social landlords to fund work to help sustain tenancies.

The Scottish Government believes that a social tariff is the best way to ensure that energy consumers are protected against high costs and can afford all of their energy needs. The powers to implement a social tariff remain with the UK Government and we are committed to working closely with them to advocate for the delivery of a social tariff across Great Britain. We established a Social Tariff Working Group in November, bringing together stakeholders to co-design a deliverable social tariff policy, and will share the outputs from the group with UK Government as soon as possible.

As detailed in my letter to NZET Committee on 17 December 2024, the technological and financial landscape has changed significantly since the Decarbonisation Action Plan was first published. The Scottish Government currently faces significant financial and budgetary pressures. As a consequence of these challenges, it is clear that the 2020 Decarbonisation Action Plan commitment to decarbonise rail services by 2035 can no longer be met. A revised target of 2045 is planned for the refreshed Rail Services Decarbonisation Action Plan.

The Scottish Government welcomes the publication of the interim report of the Independent Review of Adult Disability Payment and thanks the chair, Edel Harris for her work. The Scottish Government is now carefully considering these initial findings, including the areas the Chair considers may be capable of early action.

The assigning of a hearing for trial is an order of the court and is recorded within the court’s interlocutor for each case.

COPFS uses a live, operational database to manage the processing of reports submitted to Procurators Fiscal by the police and other reporting agencies throughout Scotland. It is designed to meet business needs in the processing of criminal cases, rather than for statistical analysis. Scheduled trial data is not retained once a date is cancelled regardless of the reason.

Information in respect of cases brought to court is produced by the Scottish Government, using data provided both by COPFS and SCTS. These are national figures and are not produced for individual courts or Procurator Fiscal Offices.