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The Scottish Government is planning to require ScotRail to procure replacement trains for the current fleet, known as the High Speed Trains (HST) fleet which operate on its InterCity routes between Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Inverness.

The aim for the replacement trains will be to provide a more consistent, comfortable experience for passengers on the InterCity routes.

This will ensure the reliability of Intercity routes for the long-term, will reduce emissions from Intercity services and will provide a path towards a decarbonised Intercity network.

The decision follows a process of appraisal to look at different options to replace the trains. These options take into consideration the potential transition from diesel power to electric trains, the availability of funding and affordability challenges.

A contract notice will be published in the coming weeks, with a more detailed delivery timeline available at the point of contract award.

The Scottish Government has subsidised the temporary removal of ScotRail peak fares for twelve months in a move to encourage modal shift from private car to rail while making rail travel more affordable and accessible over the pilot period. The cost of the full year subsidy was approximately £40m.

The success of the pilot has been measured through analysis, which uses daily patronage data (from April 2022 to start of July 2024) covering the period before and nine months of the pilot.

This analysis shows that while there has been a limited increase in the number of passengers during the pilot, it did not achieve its aims of encouraging a significant modal shift from car to rail. In light of the financial challenges facing the Scottish Government and the level of additional and continuing subsidy that would be required to continue the pilot versus its contribution towards tackling climate change with modal shift from car and tackling child poverty which are key Scottish Government missions, the pilot will end on 27th September 2024.

The pilot primarily benefitted existing train passengers and those with medium to higher incomes and although passenger levels increased to a maximum of around 6.8%, it would require a 10% increase in passenger numbers for the policy to be self-financing. The pilot will have been welcome in saving many passengers hundreds and in some cases thousands of pounds during the cost of living crisis but this level of subsidy cannot continue in the current financial climate on that measure alone.

I am aware, however, that a significant minority of people cannot choose when they travel to and from work who did and would benefit from lower priced rail travel and who might find the return to peak fares challenging. I can therefore announce the introduction of a 12-month discount on all ScotRail season tickets and permanently amending the terms of flexipasses to allow for 12 single journeys for the price of 10, used within 60 days, equivalent to a 20% discount for those who travel less frequently.

For example, prior to the pilot someone travelling between Edinburgh and Glasgow would have paid £28.90 for an anytime return. They will now pay £31.40 for an anytime day return but with the 20% discount this reduces to £18.52 if they use an annual season ticket to travel at least 4 days per week or £21.25 if using a flexipass for a return journey. Weekly and monthly season tickets are also available with the 20% discount which offer savings over buying tickets on a daily basis.

Prior to the pilot, someone travelling between Barrhead and Glasgow would have paid £6.60. While this will increase to £7.20 for an anytime day return it reduces to £4.06 if they use an annual season ticket to travel at least 4 days per week. Someone using a flexipass on the same journey will pay £4.85 for a return journey.

Super off-peak tickets will also be reintroduced.

The final evaluation of the Pilot is available on the Transport Scotland website.

The Scottish Government would be open to consider future subsidy to remove peak fares should UK budget allocations to the Scottish Government improve in future years.

At this stage we've had no confirmation on whether recent UK Government announcements on housebuilding will generate additional consequential funding for Scotland. This is dependent on whether the UK Government policy is funded from within existing UK departmental budgets or through new money.

There remains significant uncertainty over our overall funding position. The current Spending Review period concludes at the end of the 2024-25 financial year and we currently have no details of our block grant funding from 2025-26 onwards.

More information on both matters will be provided following the UK Autumn Statement on 30 October 2024.

The RSV programme for older adults will run from 12 August to the end of September. The childhood flu programme will launch from early September. We are currently working with Public Health Scotland (PHS) and Health Boards to confirm a start date for the adult flu programme, which the JCVI has advised should start in early October.

Although the RSV and flu programmes may overlap in September, there are no plans to co-administer the RSV vaccine alongside the flu vaccine this winter. This is because current data suggests that administering them together has the potential to blunt the RSV vaccine's effectiveness. For those who are eligible for both RSV and flu, they will therefore have two separate appointments.

If the JCVI announces a COVID-19 winter programme, it is likely we would co-administer the COVID-19 vaccine with flu, as has been done in previous winters, for maximum convenience for the patient.

The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to improving, decarbonising and modernising the small ferry fleet and better meeting the needs of island residents, businesses and communities. After careful consideration of the SVRP Phase 1 outline business case and procurement options, I can announce that a competitive process will begin today (Tuesday 16 July) to secure delivery of seven new electric vessels for our small vessels fleet. This will be progressed by Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited as the procuring authority. It is expected that the relevant processes will be completed in around eight months, at which point a contract can then be awarded. I will provide further updates to Parliament at key stages of the procurement process.

As part of the 2023-24 COVID-19 and Flu winter vaccination programme the NHS in Scotland delivered over 3.57 million vaccines, including 1,647,596 adult flu vaccines and 538,580 child flu vaccines.

Vaccination uptake rates in the 65 years and over group reached 79.8%, which is above the World Health Organization’s target ambition of 75%.

A detailed breakdown of the seasonal flu vaccination 2023-24 uptake figures for each cohort can be found via the Public Health Scotland vaccination surveillance dashboard PHS Vaccination Surveillance (shinyapps.io) .

The Scottish Government was only able to officially confirm and announce the programme after the completion of the tender process in early June therefore initial work has been limited to a small planning group comprising the Scottish Government, Public Health Scotland (PHS) and Health Boards. As we are now able to confirm cohorts and launch plans, we are working closely with PHS to engage a range of partners to raise awareness of the programme and encourage those eligible to come forward. The Scottish Government, working in partnership with PHS, has engaged with a range of key stakeholders including Health Boards, NHS Education for Scotland (NES), National Services Scotland (NSS) and maternity services throughout this process. Promotion and engagement is also ongoing through charities such as Age UK.

RSV is one of the leading causes of hospitalisation in the first year of life and can also cause severe complications for older adults which may require hospitalisation. Protecting infants by vaccinating pregnant women and birthing people, and the adult RSV vaccination programme are therefore expected to prevent a significant number of GP consultations, hospitalisations and ICU admissions per year.

While estimates of vaccine uptake are not currently available, the Scottish Government will continue to work with Public Health Scotland (PHS) and other key stakeholders to maximise uptake of the vaccine across both programmes, which will have a positive impact on winter pressures across the NHS. Health Boards collect data using local IT systems, which vary across Scotland, and PHS is currently working to collate data to record vaccination events.

We welcomed Poppyscotland’s Credit Their Service campaign last summer and acknowledge the two primary areas of concern highlighted in it. The first of these, Pension Credits, is reserved to the UK Government and the Scottish Government is therefore unable to intervene on this issue. However, we are in regular discussions with the UK Government on a range of related topics and have made them aware of the issues raised by Poppyscotland. We understand that officials from The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) met with Royal British Legion, Poppyscotland's sister organisation to discuss this.

The benefits administered by Local Authorities that are referenced by the campaign are Council Tax Support, Discretionary Housing Payment and the Scottish Welfare Fund. The Scottish Government recently published an Action Plan outlining improvements to the Scottish Welfare Fund which will be delivered in partnership with Local Authorities. Officials are working to update the statutory guidance and improve the Fund’s administration, accessibility and experience.

Discretionary Housing Payment (DHP) as a Local Authority benefit is administered by Local Authorities, who consider the circumstances of each individual case when dealing with applications. However, to receive DHP, an individual must be in receipt of either the housing element of Universal Credit or Housing Benefit. As both of these remain reserved to the UK Government, neither the Scottish Government nor Local Authorities have any powers over how they are administered.

With regards to Council Tax support, the Council Tax Reduction Regulations already instruct that Armed Forces independence payments should be fully disregarded as income in the calculation of council tax reduction in both the pension age and working age schemes. Therefore, all Local Authorities should disregard these payments as income in relation to applications for Council Tax reduction. The Scottish Government continues to keep the Council Tax Reduction regulations under review.