Chamber and committees

The SPCB first agreed to the provision of free period products at the Holyrood building at their meeting on 3 May 2018. The SPCB is committed to providing an inclusive working environment for all staff throughout all stages of their working lives. This includes creating a culture where staff experiencing problematic periods or menopausal symptoms get the support they need to manage their symptoms at work.  For a variety of reasons, including the menopause, people may not always be prepared or have products to hand.   The SPCB agreed that this should not be a barrier to participation in the workplace. The provision of free products supports the Parliament’s aim to support the mental and physical health care needs of staff. This is in line with our value of respect.

The restocking of products is arranged by the cleaning team, who are provided under a contract managed by the Facilities Management office.   The Facilities Management team are currently working with the cleaning contractor to source a suitable, sustainable brand for the provision of period products. These should be available in the near future. Reusable products will not form part of this offering. 

A review of the provision of period products is planned for this year. The different types of products available, including reusable, will be considered in that review.

We’re working closely with Openreach to address the delays being experienced in R100 contract build, which is impacting a small number of properties that will now receive their superfast broadband connections later than indicated by our online address checker.

While the checker aims to provide the most up to date information available, details may change from time to time due to a number of factors including engineering and planning constraints and ongoing updates by commercial broadband providers.

Like many other services, we’re doing our best to minimise disruption caused by the impact of COVID-19 and associated global supply chain issues, and will continue to work with suppliers and ensure that the checker is updated as further information is supplied.

Since the start of the pilot in June 2021 Scottish Government has met individually with:

Association of British Insurers 5 times

• on 13 August 2021, 19 August 2021, 6 October 2021, 11 November 2021,
  ‎ 3 March 2022,

UK Finance 6 times

• on 13 July 2021, 18 August 2021, 19 August 2021, 22 February 2022, 6 April 2022, 21 April 2022

‎ SFRS 2 times

• on 9 July 2021, 15 September 2021

High Rise Scotland Action Group

• 15 times on 30 July 2021, 13 August 2021, 16 August 2021, 19 August 2021, 2 December 2021, 10 December 2021, 17 January 2022, 11 February 2022, 18 February 2022, 4 March 2022, 25 April 2022, 26 April 2022, 9 May 2022, 11 May 2022, 6 July 2022.

‎ Pilot building homeowners association representatives

• 23 June 2022

The Scottish Government has met with all stakeholders collectively at meetings of the Cladding Stakeholder Group. It has met on these dates:

‎2021

• 30 June, 19 August, 15 September, 20 October, 17 November, 15 December.
  ‎

2022

19 January, 16 February, 16 March, 20 April, 18 May.

Officials have also met with the SFRS regularly, at times daily, and likewise for homeowners affected by the cladding crisis. It is impossible to attach a figure to these meetings.

The Scottish Government has met 8 times with Homes for Scotland directly related to the development of the Scottish Safer Buildings Accord workshops.

We are making significant progress, to date focused around collaborative service design of the high level principles and scope. We are working at pace with our design cohort to refine specific technical criteria and build up granularity to the Accord.

Officials, in keeping with good collaborative working and Service Design, continue to meet regularly with Homes for Scotland out with design workshops and it is impracticable to attach a figure to these.

Discussions are sensitive and of a commercial, financial and legal nature. These will understandably not be published due to the confidential nature of discussions.

Scottish Ministers are absolutely committed to a publicly owned and operated NHS, and for the people of Scotland to have free and timely access to health services. Our NHS in Scotland makes very limited use of the independent sector for targeted services and to supplement NHS capacity, where necessary.

In 2020-21, use of the independent sector in NHS Scotland represented just 0.5% of the frontline health budget. For NHS England, use of the independent sector was 7%, £12.2 billion, of the English health budget for the same period.

Total spend with independent providers is published annually in NHS Board accounts which are available on each Board’s website. Detail not included in the accounts would require to be requested from Health Boards.

We are committed to publishing a national framework for schools on addressing gender based violence. This work is being delivered by the Gender Based Violence in Schools Working Group who will also review existing resources and develop new resources where needed. We have also established the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning to identify ways in which systemic gender inequality in education can be eradicated. In accordance with the Bute House Agreement, in September 2021 the Gender Based Violence in Schools Working Group and the Harmful Sexual Behaviour Delivery Group met to consider existing work on addressing gender based violence in education settings and identify any gaps in the current approach. The minutes of this meeting can be found here . The Scottish Government have committed to commissioning an independent review following the completion of the work of both groups, which will consider the impact of the work, establish positive practice, and any further areas for improvement. In addition, we are taking forward a range of actions in schools such as teaching our children and young people about safe and healthy relationships through relationships, sexual health and parenthood education; and funding programmes, such as Mentors in Violence Prevention, aimed at reducing and preventing sexual harassment and violence in schools. Further and Higher Institutions are expected to adopt and adapt the Equally Safe in Higher Education Toolkit, assessing their own policies and practices against the Toolkit.

A new forensic laboratory based at Junction 24 Business Park in Glasgow is being prepared for the handover of the Post Mortem Toxicology Service from the University of Glasgow to Scottish Police Authority (SPA) Forensic Services.

In July 2022, I visited the laboratory which is now fully-fitted out and being set up for the transfer of the service which is due to take place on 1 December 2022.

SPA Forensic Services are also working closely with the University of Glasgow and the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service to ensure continuity of the Post Mortem Toxicology Service throughout this transfer period.

Building on a rich shipbuilding heritage, the future for Scottish shipbuilding, marine engineering and fabrication is very strong. The latest official statistics show Scottish shipbuilding generated £408 million of gross value added in 2019 – a 45% increase from 2018 – and Scotland contributed 19% of the total UK shipbuilding output. The sector supports direct employment of approximately 7,500 highly skilled people in Scotland with many thousands more supported through the supply chain.

The major shipbuilding yards in Rosyth and on the Clyde continue to deliver substantial programmes of work for defence and ferries programmes, whilst a host of smaller facilities throughout Scotland service the ship repair, fabrication, fishing and aquaculture sectors. And, through our ownership of Ferguson Marine, Scottish Ministers are working to ensure the Port Glasgow yard has a secure and sustainable future.

The broader Scottish marine engineering sector continues to service offshore oil and gas markets both in the North Sea and across the globe, while the sector gears up for the truly transformational opportunities that will come through ScotWind – the world’s largest commercial round for floating offshore wind – putting Scotland at the forefront of offshore wind development globally.

Lease agreements with all 17 successful ScotWind applicants have now been signed and we welcome the commitment of developers to invest an average projection of £1.5 billion in Scotland per project, equating to more than £25 billion across all projects. Through these initial awards, ScotWind will not only deliver c.£700 million in revenues to the public purse, but also wider economic supply chain benefits to help power Scotland’s green recovery in communities across Scotland.

The Scottish Government has also committed to invest £580 million over 5 years in vessels and ports, as part of our Infrastructure Investment Plan. This substantial funding will improve Scotland’s ferry services by delivering greater resilience to the network and will allow a wider range of vessels to be used. The Islands Connectivity Plan (ICP) will replace the current Ferries Plan from January 2023 and, as part of the ICP, we will produce and maintain a long-term plan and investment programme for new ferries and development at ports.