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The Scottish Government provides a range of support to shipbuilding, marine engineering, harbours and ports across Scotland but has no plans to introduce a new general development programme to promote and improve shipbuilding and dock facilities.

The Scottish Government, the Enterprise Agencies and the Scottish National Investment Bank have, for example, supported major recent investments at Stornoway Harbour, Aberdeen Harbour and Ardersier Port. In addition, the Green Freeports programme, in partnership with the UK Government, is also helping to drive investment and high-quality job creation at multiple port locations situated within Inverness and Cromarty Firth Green Freeport and Forth Green Freeport respectively.

This Government took a proactive approach to preserve commercial shipbuilding on the Clyde at Ferguson Marine and remains committed to invest in the skills and capabilities needed to secure a sustainable future for the shipyard.

The Public Service Reform Programme was established in December 2023. Through the programme we are working to address both the efficiency and effectiveness of services, whilst also working to move the public services system to prioritise prevention.

The update to Parliament in September 2024 set out the details of Scottish Government’s key efficiency programmes and projected savings. These programmes include: Commercial Value for Money (CVfM), Collaborative Procurement, Central Government Procurement Shared Services, Single Scottish Estate, The Shared Services Programme, the Intelligent Automation Centre of Excellence and the Digital Programme.

These programmes are securing significant cost avoidance and cash releasing savings, expected to reach up to £280 million over a two-year period (by end 2024-25), with further projected savings of nearly £300 million over the following two financial years to the end of 2026-27.

In terms of further detail, examples include:

• An overall total of £36M direct Scottish Single Estates benefits have been secured in the first year of the programme. This includes cash savings of £5.5M in 23-24 and £15M in 24-25
• The Commercial Value for Money programme has delivered almost £7m of cashable and £600k of non-cashable savings.
• The Intelligent Automation Centre of Excellence has delivered 143 automations with a further 469 in the pipeline. £3.9M in cost-avoidance benefits have been achieved to date.

As the programme develops further, building on the data and capacity around savings, and the embedding of reform and efficiency in the budget process, we will look to drive and quantify other savings opportunities.

Operational decisions relating to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) are for the independent Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (SCTS). SCTS is rolling out a new case management system for OPG. Activation codes are not in scope for the first stages of the project, but will be considered for phases beyond 2025-26 should funding be available.

The Scottish budget has provided support to the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service in order that a new case management system for the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) can be introduced. The project to deliver a new system for OPG is due to be delivered over three phases. The first phase, which will enable faster processing of Power of Attorney applications, is due to be launched in 2025 and will enable OPG to bring down the processing time for cases. Phases two and three are anticipated to also be rolled out during 2025. It is estimated that the project, once all phases are delivered, will provide annual recurring savings alongside significant service improvements, and a more stable, resilient system.

Table 1 shows the estimated net income from properties liable for the Basic Property Rate in 2025-2026, broken down by property class. The net estimates include adjustments for reliefs, as well as in-year adjustments such as reductions due to proposals or appeals and write-offs.

The Scottish Government does not hold property-level data on industry sectors. “Property class” is a classification used by Scottish Assessors to describe the type of property, but may not necessarily accurately reflect the actual use of a property.

The distribution for relief awards is estimated based on a snapshot of councils’ billing systems as at 1 June 2024. In the case of the proposed relief for hospitality properties, the forecast value of the relief has been distributed based on property level eligibility without trying to account for take-up or for the effect of the £110,000 cash cap for this relief at a business level.

Table 1: Estimated net income from properties liable for BPR by class, to the nearest £100,000

The Scottish Government supported a meeting with NFUS and DG Sante on this matter held earlier this year. No concerns were raised or foreseen by EU officials on the use of UHF in Scotland.

The Scottish Government funds NHS Boards to provide healthcare to individuals in the criminal justice system. It is the responsibility of these Health Boards to provide safe, effective, person-centred care, equitable to that available to those in the community. This funding is being supplemented in the current Parliamentary term from our National Mission that includes a Prison to Rehab pathway which enables individuals with problem substance use, which includes alcohol, to access residential rehabilitation immediately on release from prison. Public Health Scotland is independently evaluating the impact of the National Mission. In December 2024 we supported the launch of Scotland's Charter of Rights for people affected by substance use to ensure people will have access to all appropriate services - including in the criminal justice system.

Staff deployment is an operational matter for ScotRail, as the employer and train operating company. The Member may wish to contact ScotRail directly.

During the short period of reduction in Aberdeen sleeper services it will be possible for passengers to use regular evening and morning ScotRail Aberdeen services, providing connections with the Caledonian Sleeper services at Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The core Scottish Government workforce has been following a strategy to reduce in size since March 2022, to adjust to the budgetary context and the change in the profile of its work following the Covid-19 pandemic. This direction accords with the wider work on medium term financial planning and in-year path to balance, as well as aligning with wider Public Service Reform ambitions. Enhanced recruitment controls were introduced at the start of the 2022-23 financial year to achieve this strategy.

In 2022-23 and 2023-24 the total Scottish Government workforce (i.e. directly employed and contingent workers) reduced by 0.4% and 3% respectively. This is the first time the workforce has reduced in consecutive years since SG began publishing workforce statistics in 2012. For the remainder of 2024-25, the presumption against external recruitment has been further strengthened in line with the spending controls announced in August 2024. Workforce planning for 25-26 will get underway across SG teams in early 2025. The size of the corporate functions within the Scottish Government, and the services they offer to wider public sector bodies, has been part of the consideration of the optimal size and deployment of the total Scottish Government workforce.

Ongoing assessment of the size of the corporate functions, both within the Scottish Government and across the wider public body landscape, is underway and opportunities will continue to be reviewed to ensure the those functions are as efficient and effective as possible to enable the delivery of public services.

The Scottish Government is taking action to support effective workforce planning in public bodies to, including providing guidance on redeployment.