The Scottish Government intends to dual the A9 between Perth and Inverness by 2025. Construction of the second section to be dualled between Luncarty and Birnam is progressing well and at the same time, design work continues at pace with eight of the remaining nine dualling schemes now subject to the statutory process. We are currently reviewing procurement options to bring forward the remainder of the programme following completion of the statutory process.

Design work is also well underway on the A96 Dualling Inverness to Aberdeen programme. The Scottish Government intends to dual the A96 by 2030, subject to the satisfactory completion of the statutory process for each section of the dualling programme.

Under the Transport Scotland “Trunk Road and Motorway Tourist Signing Guidance (2016)”, applicants are expected to meet the costs associated with the provision (design and installation) and replacement of tourist signs. General maintenance of erected signs is managed by Transport Scotland at no cost to the applicant.

The brown tourist information signs that are installed as part of our major trunk road improvement projects (e.g. Aberdeen Western Peripheral route) are included within the construction contract and the cost cannot be disaggregated from the overall cost of each project. This is commercial information as part of the contractors’ overall tender for each project.

For 2007-08 to 2014-15, information for those targets that were due for delivery in each year at a national level and NHS Board level is available at the UK Web Archive at the link below. Over this period, NHS Boards were also expected to deliver, on an ongoing basis, targets that been due for delivery in previous years. Consideration of whether these targets had been delivered by NHS Boards were able to be made each time data was updated in the Scotland Performs NHSScotland web pages. This was a ‘live’ system and these web pages have not been archived.

https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20180707034706/
http://www.gov.scot/About/Performance/scotPerforms/NHSScotland
performance/HEATstandards

National information showing trend performance against the LDP Standards for 2015-16 onwards, and NHS Board level information for the latest period is presented in the LDP Standard pages on the current Scottish Government website. Also included in these pages are links to the statistical publications including additional data.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/nhsscotland-performance-against-ldp-standards/pages/introduction/

NHS Boards’ spending on the independent sector represents 0.6% of the overall health resource budget, compared with 7.3% in England. Further detail is available in the annual accounts that are published online by each NHS Board.

We expect all NHS Boards to make best use of resources to deliver high quality services for the communities for which they are responsible. NHS Boards are able to set in place service level agreements with other NHS Bodies but can only procure services that comply with the procurement guidance set out by NHS National Procurement. This information is therefore held at an individual Board level.

It would be misleading to provide per capita funding from General Revenue Grant (GRG) alone as the Scottish Government guarantees the combined formula share of each local authorities GRG plus Non-Domestic Rates Income (NDRI) as part of the overall funding package.

The total GRG and NDRI per capita funding by local authority since 2007-08 is set out in a document that has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre, Bib number 61383.

It should be noted that due to the removal of Police and Fire services from the Local government settlement in 2013-14, figures before and after this period are not comparable.

It should also be noted that significant additional funding for local government core services provided through specific grants is also not included in this analysis.

 As apprentices are recruited by their employer it is not possible to record information on the number of unsuccessful applicants for modern apprenticeships.

The Scottish Government provided local authorities with £10.7 billion through the local government settlement in 2018-19, a real terms increase in both revenue and capital funding. Taken together with the flexibility to increase council tax the total funding delivered an additional £342 million or 3.3 per cent to support vital local services.

(a) - Employment levels in Scottish local government rose by 7,200 or 2.9 per cent to 252,000 in March 2019.

(b) - The vast majority of funding is provided to local authorities by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available on the basis of local needs and priorities. However the overall settlement provided local government with an additional £342 million in 2018-19 to invest in essential public services.

(c) - The level of council tax increase was capped at 3 per cent in 2018-19 to protect household incomes and preserve the financial accountability of local government whilst generating an additional £77 million for investment in vital public services.

(d) - Local authorities must use their resources as efficiently as possible and deliver services effectively to ensure taxpayers get the best possible value. Decisions on the use of reserves are rightly the responsibility of individual councils to take where it is prudent and sustainable to do so.

The Property Factor Code of Conduct sets standards for clarity and transparency in the information provided to owners, including on charges, to ensure that home owners can make informed decisions about contracts.

It would not be appropriate for Scottish Ministers or the Scottish Government to become involved in private property disputes relating to management charges.

The Scottish Government recognises that although there are provisions in the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 to dismiss and replace a factor, this may not be straightforward when the factor is a land-owning land maintenance company as they own the land that they maintain.

The Scottish Government is currently working on a non-statutory voluntary Code of Practice on the dismissal and replacement of land-owning land maintenance companies. The Code would introduce guidance on the minimum standards expected from any land-owning land maintenance company following a request from home owners who wish to dismiss and replace their factor and facilitate the transfer of ownership of the open space maintained.

The Property Factors (Scotland) Act 2011 sets out a statutory framework to provide protection for homeowners in Scotland who receive services from a property factor. The Act sets minimum standards for the property management industry and requires all factors (including land-owning land maintenance companies) to register on the Scottish Property Factor Register, and to abide by a statutory code of conduct.

The Code sets out minimum standards of practice in the delivery of services to homeowners. Section 1 of the Code requires a registered property factor to supply each homeowner with a written statement of services, including a statement of the basis of the property factor’s authority to act and any financial and charging arrangements which apply.