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The Scottish Government has made a 14.5% pay offer to Junior Doctors covering the period of 2022-24. This represents a £61.3 million investment in junior doctor pay - the largest in the last 20 years and the best offer in the UK. This will be funded from within the Health and Social Care budget.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is expecting to take delivery of the electric appliance in the coming weeks. The vehicle remains with the manufacturers, Emergency One in Ayrshire at this time.

The appliance has now completed and passed its localised testing, however it is awaiting final independent Vehicle Certification Agency testing before being placed in an operational fire station.

Following a period of staff training for firefighters and SFRS fleet maintenance, SFRS expects the electric appliance to enter operational service later in the summer.

The Scottish Government has agreed with local authorities to amend the homelessness data collection to record Ukrainian Displaced People applying for homelessness support from 1 April 2022. For the local authorities that have implemented the required changes, data will be released on the same day as the annual Homelessness in Scotland publication scheduled for August 2023, with the specific date pre-announced by the end of June. This publication will cover the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.

The latest Experimental Statistics from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on the Index of Private Housing Rental Prices (IPHRP) were published on 24 May 2023, available at Index of Private Housing Rental Prices, UK - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) . There are methodological limitations with the Scotland level results being presented given the influence of the restrictions on in-tenancy rent increases introduced through the Cost of Living (Tenant Protection)(Scotland) Act 2022 which has been in force since 28 October 2022. Users of the results are advised to bear this in mind when interpreting the estimates for Scotland and comparing with other UK countries. The following cautionary text is included in this ONS publication:

“The rise in annual rental price inflation for Scotland since this (Cost of Living Tenants Protection Scotland) bill was passed will largely reflect increasing rental prices from new lets as they continue to feed into the Scotland IPHRP stock measure. There are also compositional differences between the Scotland rental data and Scotland's rental sector. Measures for Scotland are mainly based on advertised rental data, along with assumptions on average periods between rent price increases, so changes in rents for existing tenants are largely estimated. The IPHRP methodology assumes that rental price remains constant for up to 14 months if updated rental data for that property is not available. The Cost of Living (Tenants Protection) Scotland Bill could lead to an increase in the average length of time that rental price remains unchanged. If the average time between rental price changes is above the assumed 14 months, then IPHRP methodology will present higher estimates of rising rental costs in the overall market in Scotland. This is because only a small proportion of the sample is based on updated rental data from existing lets, and replacement data will be predominantly based on uncapped newly advertised rents. Users are advised to bear this in mind when interpreting the estimates for Scotland and comparing with other UK countries.”

The Scottish Government does not therefore consider that these experimental statistics are sufficiently nuanced to draw valid comparisons between Scotland and England and Wales.

The review has now been completed. The report is currently being finalised and will be published later in 2023.

Any considerations for HST replacement including timescales must take account of the conclusions of the Carmont Steering Group, and must be informed by the available budgets and the business case for change. The procurement of new rolling stock forms an integral part of Transport Scotland’s Decarbonisation Action Plan.

The detailed information requested is currently being collated and will be provided as soon as it is available. A copy will be placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib number 64328).

The RAIB’s accident investigation report following the Carmont rail accident in 2020 concluded that the HSTs are not unsafe, a position which has also been confirmed by the independent safety regulator, the Office of Rail and Road. The Carmont accident was caused by a fault on the infrastructure.

Academic year 2021-22 represented the first graduating year of the ScotGEM course with 52 students qualifying at this time. The second cohort of students will graduate later this summer.

Section 136 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 (the 2003 Act) provides for the transfer of prisoners to hospital for treatment for mental disorder by way of a transfer for treatment direction (TTD). A TTD cannot be applied to prisoners on remand (those who have not been convicted and/or sentenced yet).

Where a remand prisoner requires mental health assessment or treatment in hospital this would likely be done by way of an assessment order, treatment order, interim compulsion order or temporary compulsion order which are provided for under the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 (the 1995 Act). Data has been provided for females who have transferred to hospital under the 2003 Act or the 1995 Act.