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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 These will understandably not be published due to the confidential nature of discussions.

This information is not held centrally.

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.

The following table provides an overview of P1 learners who have undertaken (a) one or (b) both parts of the Scottish National Standardised Assessments since 20 September 2018, broken down by (i) school year and (ii) local authority.

Please note that figures less than five have been suppressed to prevent the potential identification of individuals.

The row "n/a" denotes publicly-funded schools outwith local authority control.

Table 1 - Number of P1 Children undertaking SNSA since 20 September 2018 - by year and local authority

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.

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.

As a result of the pandemic, local PPE Hubs were set up all over Scotland to provide free PPE to people providing social care support including to people at highest risk, who need it. The Scottish Government continues to offer free PPE to unpaid carers and provision has been extended to September 2022. Unpaid or family carers who think they require PPE due to their caring role should contact their local carer’s centre and they will advise on how to access supplies locally. If their local carers’ centre is unavailable, they can call the Social Care PPE Support Centre on 0300 303 3020.

With regards to the point on air filters and ventilation I have attached a link to HSE guidance here Overview - Ventilation in the workplace (hse.gov.uk) . You can also find further guidance from Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) CIBSE - Emerging from Lockdown (CIBSE.org) .

Hand-washing and wearing face coverings in indoor public places and on public transport are two of the key things we’re still asking people to do as part of our Covid Sense (gov.scot) campaign.

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.