Chamber and committees

Data on the numbers of condoms issued in prisons is not collected centrally.

Condom provision is one of the most effective harm reduction interventions to control sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV and therefore condoms are available to all prisoners to support health protection in the prison population.

While centralised data is not collected, prison healthcare teams report that women access condoms for home visits and liberation.

CalMac are continuing to develop the LNG workstream for Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa, including through discussions with Wartsila the engine manufacturer. The methane slip in service would be influenced by the route the ship is to operate on and the amount of venting produced by the number of times changing over fuel source or when slowing down suddenly for navigational purposes. For these reasons the rate of methane slip will not be fully known until the ships are deployed and fully operational.

The CICV Survey provides an insight in to the poor payment practices prevalent in the construction industry. The information contained therein will be helpful in the ongoing work of the Construction Accord Transformation Action working groups which are a collaboration between industry and government.

Scottish Government expects payments at all levels in a public contract supply chain to be made within the terms and conditions of the relevant contract or subcontract. Those agreements should comply with applicable legislation, be fair to both parties and be fairly administered. For financial year 2022-23, the core Scottish Government made 98.0% of payments within 10 days (2021-22: 97.7%) and 99.4% (2021-22: 99.2%) of all payments within the terms of its contractual 30 day payment policy.

Scottish Government’s procurement policy and procedures for public bodies on contract payments are set out in SPPN 2/2022. Bidders who are unable to assure the effectiveness and reliability of their supply chain payment processes may not be awarded a public contract. The awarding body should monitor the winning bidder’s actual payment performance and there is an escalation pathway for sub-contractors if their payment is delayed.

The Construction Accord’s Transformation Board have a Procurement and Supply Chain Working Group - on which CICV have representation - who will be looking into the issue of prompt payment throughout the supply chain. The CICV prompt payment survey results will be of assistance in this work.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-24258 on‎ 22 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 .

In 2024-25 the Scottish Government is investing over £2.4 billion to support our colleges, universities and skills system, this includes funding for Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council.

The employer-led DYW Regional Groups and School Coordinators work with specialist partners and third sector organisations to support young people who are furthest from the labour market, including disabled young people, into positive destinations.

DYW Regional Groups collect data across the 4 DYW Key Performance Indicators. One of these focusses on equalities and captures data on the number of young people from target groups (which includes disabled young people) who have participated in a universal or bespoke employer engagement activity, facilitated by the Regional Group and / or School Coordinator. We are working with Regional Groups to capture more data for this indicator.

As outlined in my previous answer, the Scottish Government has continued to invest an additional £15m per year since 2019-20 to help local authorities respond to the individual needs of children and young people. This investment is monitored via information collected through the annual school staff census. The latest figures show that this funding has helped contribute to the highest recorded number of support staff in schools, 16,606 in 2022.

We are also providing local authorities with £145.5m in this year's budget to protect teacher numbers and support staff.

Any financial decisions regarding these investments are subject to future budgetary processes.

We are committed to addressing violence against women and girls and acknowledge the crucial role that Rape Crisis centres across Scotland play in providing support to victim-survivors. Frontline services for women and girls affected by gender-based violence are crucial and that is why we are investing over £5m for the Rape Crisis network through our annual £19m Delivering Equally Safe (DES) fund.DES funding runs until March 2025.

As set out in the answer to question S6W-23870, the Strategic Board for Teacher Education is looking at issues around the recruitment and retention of teachers in Scotland in detail, including how the Teacher Induction Scheme operates.

All applications for the Teacher Induction Scheme are based on personal choice and the Scottish Government cannot direct probationary teachers to opt for the Preference Waiver Payment.

The announcement in the Scottish Budget 2024-25 signalled the Scottish Government’s intent to explore the reintroduction of a Public Health Supplement. The exploratory work will include considering options for the design of any such supplement.