The Housing Emergency Action Plan delivers new and enhanced actions, including committing to deliver up to £4.9 billion of investment over the coming four-years - with homes delivered through a mixture of public and privately leveraged investment.

These interventions are supporting local authorities to deliver their housing and homelessness services. It is essential that those who are at risk of homelessness are able to access housing and support when they need it most. The plan centres on three priorities, which are closely aligned with the vision in Scotland’s homelessness strategy:

• Ending children living in unsuitable accommodation – as a vital part of the Scottish Government’s determination to eradicate child poverty;
• Supporting the housing needs of vulnerable communities, including women and children experiencing domestic abuse and people with the most acute experiences of homelessness; and
• Building our future – invest extensively in affordable homes whilst working to create the optimum conditions for wider investment to be made in our housing sector with confidence and certainty.

Housing to 2040 remains our key overarching strategy that sets out a vision and roadmap to ensuring everyone has a safe, good quality and affordable home by 2040. That has not changed, and in these challenging times, the formal governance we have established through the Housing to 2040 Strategic Board provides important critical and strategic oversight to support sector-wide delivery of the Housing to 2040 strategy and the Housing Emergency Action Plan.

The key benefits and intended outcome of investment in new vessels is continuation of ferry services, improved reliability and additional capacity for island communities and businesses over their operating life. As Procuring Authority, CMAL consider the approach to vessel and other procurement in line with legislation and guidance. This requires appropriate consideration of community benefits depending on the product or service being procured, ensuring transparency and non-discrimination.

CMAL have confirmed that the overall scoring for the NIFS Freight flex vessels is weighted 70% on quality and 30% on cost. As part of the quality element, 3% of the score relates to community benefits, while wider social value considerations, such as fair work and environmental matters, were tested at SPD stage. As Procuring Authority, CMAL consider this to be appropriate and proportionate for this contract at ITT stage which has attracted interest only from international markets.

Through regular engagement, the Scottish Government has received assurance from the SPPA that they are prioritising pension estimates where the member is retiring in the next six months, or the information is required for ill-health or divorce purposes. Decisions about administration and service delivery are made by the SPPA in consultation with the Scheme Pension Boards, which consist of representatives from both members and employers.

SPPA also advise that 2025 Annual Benefit Statements have been issued to 90.19% of all active scheme members. These statements provide a pension valuation as of 31 March and enable members to access calculators on the SPPA website, allowing them to produce a retirement estimate.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

SPS hold our serving staff and prospective staff to the highest of standards.

In accordance with relevant legislation, including UK GDPR and UK Employment Law, SPS already undertakes a broad range of suitability and vetting checks on those who apply to work for SPS. These include right to work in the UK, criminal conviction checks and a range of vetting procedures which are undertaken against SPS systems and information sources to assess suitability for employment.

SPS’s pre-employment checks exceed the minimum requirements under the UK Government Baseline Personnel Security Standards, which set the standards for employment within the UK Civil Service.

SPS continually assesses the suitability of its recruitment practices to identify and respond to emerging risks. Where necessary, steps are taken to mitigate these as part of our commitment to maintaining the safety and security of our prisons.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

The SPS Policy for the Management of Transgender People in Custody protects the rights and welfare of transgender people living in Scotland’s prisons in a way which promotes the safety of all people in custody.

When placing a transgender person within our estate, we adopt an individualised approach to ensure the safety of everyone in our care by assessing and managing identified known risk.

There is a total of 21 transgender people in custody representing 0.3% of the total prison population. As a public body we must uphold our statutory obligation to ensure everyone in our care has their personal information protected. Given these small numbers, we are unable to provide any further disaggregation of this data due to potential risk of identification of individuals.

SPS also aim to publish prison numbers and relevant data on a quarterly basis, the last of which can be found here.

The First Minister was approached by members of For Women Scotland while attending an International Women’s Day event on Saturday 8 March 2025. In conversation, it was proposed by a representative of For Women Scotland that a meeting take place with the First Minister after the UK Supreme Court had reached a decision in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers. The Supreme Court published its judgment on 16 April and I, as the Cabinet Secretary with portfolio responsibility for equality met For Women Scotland on 22 May 2025.

No meeting has taken place between the First Minister and For Women Scotland since then, and we would not consider a meeting to be appropriate due to the live legal proceedings between For Women Scotland and the Scottish Ministers.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring those living with endometriosis can access the best possible care and support.

Endometriosis is a priority in the Women’s Health Plan and will continue to be so. Wide ranging progress, including action to support clinicians to better understand endometriosis is set out in the Women's health plan 2021 to 2024: final report - gov.scot published in November 2024.

The ongoing action we will take to support those living with endometriosis will be set out in the next phase of the Plan, which is expected to be published in January 2026.

The Scottish Government has the utmost sympathy for women who were prescribed diethylstilbestrol (DES) and the impact it may have had on them and their families.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) does not currently recommend increased screening for individuals whose mother may have been administered diethylstilbestrol while pregnant with them. The most recent guidance advises that routine screening is appropriate for those who believe that they were exposed to stilbestrol in utero, and we would encourage all women to attend their routine breast and cervical screening appointments.

In line with the UK NSC’s current recommendations, all women aged between 50 to 70 are invited for breast screening every three years. In addition, those aged 25 and 64 are invited for routine cervical screening every 5 years. Individuals may be invited for more regular cervical screening or until they are aged 70 if previous results have found changes that need to be monitored.

Anyone concerned that they may have side effects from possible or known exposure to DES should discuss this with their GP in the first instance, who can provide support and advice, and request a referral for any further testing or treatment if this is determined to be appropriate.

I have asked Teresa Medhurst, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. Her response is as follows:

Whilst SPS do not require prison officer applicants to complete a specific English language proficiency test as part of its recruitment process; verbal, written and comprehension skills are tested thoroughly throughout this operational recruitment process.

All applicants must successfully undergo and pass a comprehensive period of testing which includes a situational judgement test, cognitive ability test, a group and written exercise (for Residential Officer applicants only), and then finally a values-based job interview.

All offers of employment will however be subject to successful completion of all pre-employment checks, which include enhanced disclosure and right to work in the UK checks.

The Scottish Government does not regard it as appropriate to engage in public comment in respect of live court proceedings.