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The majority of the budget for each office in the international network is staffing costs. This comprises both Scottish Government civil servants posted on diplomatic assignment, and country-based staff employed by FCDO on terms appropriate for the local labour market. The small component for programme delivery is considered through annual budgeting procedures taking into account priorities in each country and elsewhere in the portfolio.

The increase in budget for our international network of 2.0% overall is primarily to fulfil the pay agreement applied across the Scottish Government. In most cases, programme budgets to deliver events and undertake outreach work were static or slightly reduced.

There is a range of factors which have had an effect on the net cost of running passenger rail services over the last 10 years. These include the number of services delivered, passenger revenue, Network Rail access charges, inflation, energy and fuel costs, and variations introduced during the Covid period.

The following table presents totals for (a) salaries, including overseas allowances, and (b) travel expenses for 2023-24.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

This information is held by Police Scotland.

Data on collisions which cause injury and take place on the road network, including adjacent pavements and cycle lanes, is collected by Police Scotland as part of the GB-wide dataset known as STATS19.

Within STATS19, vehicles involved in injury road collisions can be recorded as ‘bicycle’ or ‘electric motorcycle’. However, there is currently no systematic way of determining which of these vehicles would be described as illegal e-bikes.

The UK Government’s Department for Transport routinely produces estimates of the values assigned to the cost of road casualties and collisions in Great Britain for use in cost-benefit analysis of the prevention of road casualties and collisions in road schemes. However, as it is not possible to systematically identify collisions involving illegal e-bikes, it is not possible to use these figures to identify the costs of collisions involving illegal e-bikes.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

This information is held by Police Scotland.

The £1.73 bn forecast export sales relates to details provided by Scottish Enterprise (SE) in the results against key performance measures section of its 2023-24 annual report. The figure is based on accumulated evidenced export sales forecasts directly from companies, reflecting their expectations of future sales over the next three year as a result of support they have received from SE.

The Scottish Government routinely monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of export support in Scotland, and in November 2023 it published an independent report by Aston University on export support and promotion in Scotland, which included analysis of SE’s export sales forecasts. The evaluation was retrospective and therefore encompassed SE’s forecast export sales for the period up to 2021. A follow up evaluation is currently being planned and will continue to include SE’s forecast export sales.

The Scottish Government is committed to enhancing safety across Scotland’s road network.

The Road Safety Framework to 2030 sets out a vision for Scotland to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030. This contains mode and user specific targets focussed on our priority areas, including pedestrians and cyclists.

The Scottish Government has allocated a record £36m for road safety investment in the 2024/25 financial year. This includes £10m for the Road Safety Improvement Fund to support local authorities reduce casualty and risk on the local road network, and over £4m to support the delivery of projects aimed at reducing pedestrian and cyclist casualties.

To further protect vulnerable road users, a national behaviour change campaign will launch in March 2025, encouraging all road users to recognise the road is a shared space. Additionally, a dedicated stakeholder group has been established to monitor risks, identify emerging trends, and develop measures to address specific safety concerns for pedestrians and cyclists.

These measures reflect the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to making Scotland’s roads safer for everyone.

All overseas development assistance provided by the Scottish Government is guided by a rigorous process to ensure complete transparency and accountability focused on areas of need where Scotland’s aid can make an impact.

Following a review in 2021, and in consultation with our African partner country governments and civil society, the Scottish Government developed new thematic areas of focus directly aligned to the priorities of our partner country governments as set out in their respective development strategies. With a focus in particular on mitigating the impact on women and girls of the COVID-19 pandemic and reducing attainment gaps. As a part of this process, independent analysis and evidence papers were commissioned and published which underpin our two key larger areas of international development investment, namely the new health and inclusive education programming in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. A key consideration has been how best to focus international development investment on sectors in which Scotland can provide added value through existing expertise in relevant subject areas.

As new projects have launched, the participatory design phase has enabled delivery partners to engage with a range of stakeholders to continue to understand their needs and to work with them to create effective programmes that deliver for communities and align with national sector plans. A key example of this is our new Women and Girls Fund, under our Equalities Programme, where women and girl led groups in our partner countries have designed the scope of the Fund, towards advancing gender equality in Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia.

Since 2021, all new international development investment has been guided by the Scottish Government’s International Development Principles. This includes provisions for ensuring that the Scottish Government and our delivery partners are transparent and accountable to local communities and the general public in our partner countries and in Scotland; and that all of our work has appropriate safeguarding policies and practices in place. Ongoing strong monitoring and evaluation is a key consideration throughout programme management processes.