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Public sector pay continues to be a significant driver of in-year pressures and, under the current devolution settlement, any substantive in-year pressures can only be funded by reductions elsewhere. If the UK Government does not fully fund public sector pay deals, there will be a significant gap between the expectations of the workforce and the available funding.

As confirmed in the Fiscal Statement to the Scottish Parliament on 3 September, the Scottish Government has identified a range of measures to support the 2024-25 budget totalling almost £1 billion, of which up to £500 million are direct savings. Correspondence with the Convenor of the Finance and Public Administration on 3 September, confirmed that the impact of these measures has been appropriately assessed, including in formal impact assessments where required.

In relation to local authority pay awards, the Scottish Government has agreed with local government that they can draw on specific existing programmes to fund pay deals. The relevant funding will be replaced in 2025-26 and assurance has been sought from local authorities to confirm that they are able to mitigate any impacts in 2024-25 and that delivery timescales will not be significantly impacted.

As I told Parliament on 3 September, this Government has consistently warned of the significance of the financial challenge ahead. In the face of this challenge, the Scottish Government has stepped in to support people and services where it has been needed most – on social security, health, and public services and as set out in our 2024-25 budget, we have delivered a real-terms uplift for the NHS.

However, given the circumstances, the amount allocated to external affairs was reduced in the Scottish Budget published for 2024-25, from £27.051 million to £26.283 million . The continuing uncertainty about additional funding and further in-year pressures have required that more action is taken now to ensure that we can balance the budget, which has required difficult choices. Regrettably, the amount allocated to mental health services has also been reduced. This reduction has been identified through programmes being adapted, or which have come to an end. However, we remain committed to taking forward our work across mental health, working closely with key partners. Through the overall 2024-25 budget, NHS Boards and the Scottish Government will continue to spend in excess of £1.3 billon on mental health.

There has been no specific analysis completed on the impact of our expenditure in relation to mobile phone addiction. However the funding has been used to create a suite of online resources, information and advice to support the emotional health and wellbeing of children and young people.

The Scottish Youth Parliament receive funding for ‘Mind Yer Time’ - a national resource comprising of positive tips, stories and information to help children and young people use their screentime in a healthy and responsible way.

Young Scot receive funding for ‘Ayefeel’ – a national hub for young people to support their mental health and wellbeing. This includes a podcast series called ‘This is How AyeFeel’, allowing young people, content creators, known figures, and influencers a platform to share their experiences, coping mechanisms, and journeys toward better mental health through interviews, personal stories, and expert insights.

The Scottish Government provided funding in 2023-24 to carry out a piece of quantitative research to establish a baseline measure of public awareness and understanding of the symptoms and risk factors for cardiovascular disease (including awareness of FAST (Face, Arm, Speech, Time), to track progress over time should communications activity be undertaken in this area, and to inform and consider the case for public information campaigns in relation to cardiovascular disease.

This research did not provide any evidence to support the use or not of BE FAST. The decision not to adopt BE FAST was based on existing research and the National Clinical Guideline for Stroke for the UK and Ireland and is aligned with the stance of Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland, Stroke Association and the rest of the United Kingdom’s health services.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-29483 on 18 September 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

No public funding is required from the Scottish Government for the delivery of Commonwealth Games 2026 and the Scottish Government will not provide any financial underwriting. The Commonwealth Games Federation will cover the majority of costs using compensation from the Victorian Government following their withdrawal.

The additional investment will be supplemented by commercial income from ticketing, sponsorship, hospitality and merchandising. The Scottish Government thanks Commonwealth Games Australia for their offer of additional investment and the UK Government for its offer of contingency funding provisions that can be accessed if existing budget funds and contingency have been exceeded and all efforts to reduce costs have been exhausted.

The Scottish Government has conducted a thorough assessment of Commonwealth Games Scotland’s proposal for Glasgow to host the 2026 Commonwealth Games, alongside key partners. The collaboration has been positive and as a result, the Scottish Government has given its support for the proposal.

We remain determined to deliver improved A&E performance and are working with Health Boards to reduce delays by enhancing patient flow at our acute sites. Through our Urgent and Unscheduled Care Collaborative Programme, work is underway to strengthen arrangements to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions by utilising services such as Same Day Emergency Care and Hospital at Home.

To release capacity within the system, NHS Boards are enhancing the discharge process – ensuring that every patient has an effective discharge date, agreed through multidisciplinary working, to avoid being delayed in hospital once clinically fit for discharge.

Boards are also supporting the public to access the right care in the right place by optimising Flow Navigation Centres and have been increasing capacity at NHS 24 which now has the highest level of call handlers on record.

Having the right, basic principles in place in the acute hospital will improve flow, reduce long waits due to exit block and ultimately benefit A&E performance.

In addition to the £600 million announced in December 2017, the Scottish Government has invested an additional £20 million with the UK Government's Project Gigabit programme contributing a further £31 million. This further investment has been deployed via the R100 contracts to extend and enhance the coverage footprint.

The R100 contracts form only one part of the overall R100 programme. The R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) is demand-led and, as such, there is no pre-determined amount of funding allocated for delivering connections via SBVS. As of 31st August 2024, £10 million has been paid to suppliers to deliver connections via SBVS.

These figures are rounded to the nearest million pounds.

Latest assured figure (from 31 July 2024) showed that around 1,000 premises were still expected to be connected through the R100 Central contract in the Falkirk Council area.

Latest coverage figures, including premises connected that were beyond the scope of the initial R100 contracts, are available on our website at .

The three strands of activity which form the Reaching 100% (R100) programme – the over-£600 million R100 contracts, the R100 Scottish Broadband Voucher Scheme (SBVS) and ongoing commercial build - continue to deliver faster broadband connections across Scotland.

The interim voucher portion of the R100 SBVS was originally intended to close on 31 December 2021, but was extended by three months and closed on 31 March 2022.