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The Scottish Government monitors trends in arrears and repossessions data published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and UK Finance which is collated in the quarterly Scottish Housing Market Review Scottish housing market reviews - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .

The Home Owners Support Fund is a last resort scheme aimed at properties at the lowest 20% of the housing market. Applicants must have either mortgage arrears or have an interest only mortgage that has reached the end of its term and have no appropriate option to either repay the loan or to re-mortgage. There are a range of protections, advice and support services already in place for homeowners and not all of those affected by the current cost of living crisis will apply to the scheme.

This information does not fall within the scope of data gathered through the National Improvement Framework. The 11 key NIF measures assess progress towards closing the attainment gap using indicators from pre-school to school leavers. These are supplemented by 15 sub-measures that reflect the key stages of the learner journey and the breadth of issues that can impact on attainment. Together these provide a wide range of measures covering school leaver attainment and literacy and numeracy but also other, broader, measures such as health and wellbeing, school attendance rates and school leaver destinations.

Scottish Government has engaged regularly with UK Government at official and ministerial level on the new subsidy control regime. Officials have participated in all engagement sessions, continuing to provide feedback and raising our concerns and those of our stakeholders.

Disappointingly many of these remain unaddressed. Nevertheless, Scottish Government will continue to engage with BEIS through the introduction of the new Subsidy Control regime as it affects Scotland. We remain particularly concerned that the Act brings further erosion of devolution through the sweeping powers granted to the Secretary of State. It undermines the long-established powers of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Ministers to act in relation to matters within devolved competence such as economic development, the environment, agriculture and fisheries.

Under the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service contract, performance deductions can be applied by in certain circumstances.

The level of performance deductions by Contract Year incurred by CalMac Ferries Ltd is detailed below:

The following table shows how many staff have been allocated to the Home Owners Support Fund in recent years. Staff are fully trained and highly experienced and levels have been sufficient to meet demand for the Fund.

Pay and performance is a matter for CalMac Ferries Limited (CFL). Scottish Ministers have no role to play in any pay negotiations. The information on performance payments to senior staff is reported and available in the David MacBrayne Limited accounts.

Years where performance deductions have been made to the CHFS Contract were set out in my answer to question S6W-10178 on 7 September 2022. 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 .

The following table shows Home Owners Support Fund (HOSF) budget and expenditure for each of the last six years broken down by Mortgage to Rent (MTR) and Mortgage to Shared Equity (MTSE). HOSF is a demand led scheme and any difference between budget and actual spend reflects demand in that year and so there is no underspend or carry forward.

An internal review of the Home Owners Support Fund began in the Spring and will complete later this year. If Ministers decide to make any changes to the eligibility or operational arrangements for the scheme updated guidance will be published.

Through the Thrombectomy Advisory Group (TAG), work is currently underway to establish the optimal approach to increasing the out-of-hours availability of thrombectomies, the resources required to do so and the appropriate timescales for safely increasing access.

The Scottish Government continues to work with stakeholders to better understand what resources will be required for the development of a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service.

Trade unions are key partners in delivering our economic and social aspirations. We will continue to promote strong trade unions and collective bargaining arrangements in all sectors, including the renewable energy sector. We have made a clear commitment to promote collective bargaining through the inclusion of an employee voice indicator, measured by collective bargaining coverage, within the National Performance Framework.

We also work closely with Scottish Renewables, the trade body for Scotland’s renewable energy industry.

Scottish Renewables played an active role in the development of the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) which explores issues such as skills development and staff retention in many industries including Energy. Through CESAP’s Implementation Steering Group we engage with both employers and their workforce as they move through the just transition to net zero. We will continue to engage with partners to deliver the Climate Emergency Skills Action Plan (CESAP) and will move forward with improvements to the Green Jobs Workforce Academy.