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In Scotland the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) Scotland is responsible for registering all power of attorney documents. If an individual has experienced any issues involving the recognition of a Scottish power of attorney in other parts of the UK they can contact the OPG for assistance.

There is already legislation in place that provides recognition of Scottish powers of attorney in England and Wales. This is about ensuring that the institutions and organisations have awareness and are educated on the legal status of Scottish powers of attorney.

The Scottish Government will be working with third party organisations to raise awareness and publicity about the validity of Scottish powers of attorney in England and Wales.

The Scottish Government is aware of the shortage of drivers for buses, which is exacerbated by BREXIT preventing people from the EU coming here to work freely. We are working with bus operators and key industry stakeholders through the Bus Taskforce – while recognising that many of the levers are reserved to the UK Government.

Transport Scotland engages with all the train rolling stock companies on a regular basis to discuss the full range of fleet related topics including hydrogen powered trains.

The Police Negotiating Board (PNB) ‘Staff Side' have submitted a pay claim for 2023/24 which contains a request for future pay to be linked to an average pay index. As the PNB process is currently ongoing in relation to the police officer pay claim and in line with PNB protocols, it would not be appropriate for me to comment further at this time.

The Scottish Government are part of the PNB ‘Official Side’ alongside the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland.

ScotRail fleet reliability and cleanliness are operational matters for which ScotRail Trains Ltd is responsible. Details of how ScotRail is monitored for its Public Performance Measure (punctuality and reliability) and also how its stations and trains are monitored via Transport Scotland’s Service Quality Incentive Regime (SQUIRE) can be found by accessing the following link:-

Performance & Reliability | Public Performance Monitoring | ScotRail

Scottish Library and Information Council do not own or manage any buildings.

The Working Group for Missing People continues to support the implementation of the National Missing Persons Framework across Scotland.

Key actions taken forward by the Framework so far include a standardisation of the national definition of missing persons; a standardised approach to risk assessment; and the development and delivery of return discussion training to ensure more consistency across the country. Building on this work, the Group will continue work with National Co-ordinators to engage with and support multi-agency partners in areas across Scotland to limit the likelihood of people going missing.

A comprehensive update on the Group’s work was published in 2020 – Working Group for Missing People in Scotland: National Framework for Missing Persons - implementation report - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . A further update will be part of a refreshed Framework later this year.

Our £1 Billion backed NHS Recovery Plan aims to continually increase capacity for outpatients.

We have seen an increase in the level of activity for new outpatients in the latest quarter (May 2023), which was at the highest level of activity in any quarter since the start of the pandemic.

Last year there were over 1.2 million patients seen for an outpatient appointment, an increase of 8% compared to 2021, when over 1.1 million outpatients were seen.

Further statistics on additional inpatient and day case activity in 2022-2023 will be released alongside the NHS Recovery Plan update this autumn.

During the period of 2016 - 2022, 4.93% of Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS) claims have been subject to an on-farm inspection. During these inspections 2187 business have been found to be in breach of the terms of the scheme rules.

The Scottish Government is working closely with the Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland) (OPG) who have responsibility for registering powers of attorney in Scotland to highlight the concerns about recognition of these with UK financial institutions.

OPG have engaged directly with UK financial organisations when they have been made aware of common or recurring issues that require attention and on a case by case basis when needed.

OPG are planning a series of information based events later in 2023, aimed specifically at staff in UK financial organisations, with the aim of raising awareness of OPG’s role and of the financial provisions of the Adults with Incapacity legislation. The feedback will be raised at a meeting OPG is attending with Scottish banking representatives in August 2023.

OPG is also currently working in collaboration with colleagues from OPG England and similar departments in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, with the intention of delivering or preparing cross border training to highlight key differences in process and terminology across the jurisdictions as well as raising awareness of recognition issues. The aim of these efforts is to lead to a more cohesive and collaborative approach with the banks.