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The Scottish Government published the Funeral Support Payment evaluation in July 2022, which found that the payment reduced the need for people to borrow money to arrange a funeral.

Social Security Scotland’s annual client survey monitors the impact of benefit payments. Respondents to the most recent survey in 2022-23 rated Funeral Support Payment an average of 8.7 out of 10 when asked to rate how much benefit payments had helped make a difference to their lives.

We are committed to continually improving Scottish benefits. As a result of evaluation findings and learnings since Funeral Support Payment was launched in 2019, we have recently introduced regulations into Parliament to make improvements to the payment, further supporting bereaved people.

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Funeral Support Payment including applications received, application outcomes and payments.

The following table shows total applications processed and the application outcomes by financial year since 2021-22.

The Family Nurse Partnership has been carefully scaled up with quality since its introduction in 2010 and Scotland became the first country in the world to deliver FNP at scale in 2018.

The programme is delivered in 11 mainland health boards as follows:

• NHS Ayrshire and Arran
• NHS Borders
• NHS Dumfries and Galloway
• NHS Fife
• NHS Forth Valley
• NHS Grampian
• NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
• NHS Highland
• NHS Lanarkshire
• NHS Lothian
• NHS Tayside

Scottish Ministers are under an annual statutory duty to consider and report on the impact of inflation on the rate of Funeral Support Payment, and to bring forward legislation to increase the payment in line with that report. In 2024-25 the flat rate was increased by 6.7%, in line with September CPI. The higher flat rate payment is £1,257.75 and the lower flat rate is £153.50.

The UK Government equivalent, Funeral Expenses Payment, does not increase annually in line with inflation.

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Funeral Support Payment including applications received, application outcomes and payments.

The latest statistics show that 6,100 payments were made in 2021-22 financial year, 5,020 payments were made in 2022-23 financial year and 6,735 payments were made in 2023-24 financial year. The latest published statistics cover to 30 June 2024 and show that 1,510 payments had been issued in the first three months of the 2024-25 financial year.

The latest statistics publication for this benefit can be found at: Social Security Scotland - Funeral Support Payment Statistics.

Over 13,100 families have benefited from the Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) programme since it began in 2010 with, on average, over 81% of mothers offered the programme taking it up.

The Scottish Government is committed to providing financial support for bereaved people on a low-income.

Funeral Support Payment has provided £51.1 million of support to over 26,000 people since launching in September 2019. The average award for 2024-25, up to 30 June 2024, is £2,065. There is a statutory duty to uprate the payment and in 2024/25 we increased the flat rate payment by 6.7%.

We are committed to continually reviewing and improving Funeral Support Payment; we substantially widened eligibility compared to the UK Government’s Funeral Expenses Payment at launch and have recently introduced legislation to make further improvements.

Bus services in Scotland were deregulated by the then Conservative UK Government under the Transport Act of 1985 and are mostly provided by private operators.

Our commitment to bus travel includes investment of over £370 million to support concessionary bus travel and funding of almost £50 million to help ensure our bus operators can continue to provide access to affordable transport in the de-regulated market across all of Scotland. The Network Support Grant is aimed at keeping bus networks more extensive and fares lower than would otherwise be the case. This fund is paid on a per kilometre basis which favours longer distance routes more common in rural areas.

The Older & Disabled and Young Persons concessionary travel schemes provide free bus travel for over two million people in Scotland, including all children and young people under 22, eligible disabled people and everyone aged 60 and over.

The Scottish Government is committed, in partnership with operators and local authorities, to looking at ways of ensuring that everyone has accessible public transport regardless of where they live. The importance of local bus services to communities and ensuring the long-term sustainability of these vital local routes is a collaborative endeavour.

Funding is also provided to local authorities in their annual settlement to support services they consider socially necessary and for community transport services, which can play an important role in rural transport networks.

The Scottish Government is committed to an infrastructure solution to address landslip risks at the A83 Rest and Be Thankful and shares the urgency communities and businesses place on maintaining and improving connectivity of this vital route.

During the Route Options Assessment process cost estimates were developed for each of the options under consideration. The two options considered which included a tunnel were the ‘Pink’ and ‘Purple’ options with estimated costs ranging from £1.3 billion to £1.38 billion and £968.3 million to £1.1 billion at 2023 prices respectively, which are, individually, more than double the cost of the preferred ‘Brown’ route option, at £404.2 million to £465.4 million at 2023 prices.

A comparative assessment of operation and maintenance costs was also undertaken, which estimated that the preferred route option had the lowest cost, totalling approximately £24.6 million. In comparison the Pink and Purple Options were estimated to have operation and maintenance costs of £117.5 million and £138.8 million respectively.

The estimated costs of all options can be viewed in the DMRB Stage 2 Route Options Assessment Report available on the Transport Scotland website.

Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) stage two route options assessment report - A83 Access to Argyll and Bute | Transport Scotland

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-24570 on 29 January 2024. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.