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

SPS is currently preparing a new Health & Wellbeing Strategy to address health inequality among prisoners. The Strategy is being drafted to align with the development of the SPS 2023-2025 Corporate Plan.

The Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 places statutory responsibility for local roads, including structures, improvements, maintenance and repair with local roads authorities. As such it is the responsibility of the local authority to determine how best to meet its duties on local roads in their respective areas and no formal guidance is issued on this matter. Transport Scotland does however share knowledge and best practice through a number of forums. In particular the benefits of Warm Mix Asphalt has been discussed at a number of Transport Scotland Pavement Forums and representatives of SCOTS (Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland) attend these meetings.

We currently have no plans to extend the statutory free bus schemes to include Edinburgh Trams.

We are, however, undertaking a Fair Fares Review that will look at look at the range of discounts and concessionary schemes which are available on all modes including bus, rail and ferry.

The information is not held centrally. You may wish to contact Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol & Drugs directly to request additional information. An evaluation of the National Development Project Fund is also available on the Scottish Government website.

The whole family approach framework, launched in December 2021, sets out principles of how we will improve support for families affected by substances. A £3.5 million uplift per year is provided to ADPs to implement this framework by allocating funding to local family support services.

We also fund Scottish Families Affected by Alcohol & Drugs for family support services while the Children and Families Fund, administered by Corra, provides £3 million for family support each year to front-line and third-sector organisations.

Our Equally Safe Strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls emphasises the importance of challenging the underpinning attitudes which enable such violence to take place. Education settings have an important role in challenging these attitudes through teaching children and young adults about healthy relationships, consent and gender stereotypes which drive gender-based violence.

Our Equally Safe at School (ESAS) project, developed by Rape Crisis Scotland and Zero Tolerance, applies a whole school approach to inequality and gender-based violence in schools. Rape Crisis Scotland have reported that 3 schools in the Glasgow region are currently registered for an ESAS account. This year, Rape Crisis Scotland anticipate the number of schools registered for ESAS will grow as they continue to focus on the promotion of ESAS and work both nationally and with local authorities to develop ESAS implementation strategies.

The Scottish Government also funds and supports other education-based programmes and initiatives aimed at preventing gender-based violence such as our Mentors in Violence peer education programme, the Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning, the Gender-Based Violence in Schools Working Group and Rape Crisis Scotland’s national sexual violence programme for secondary schools

The pay of Marine Scotland seafarers is determined by the Scottish Government’s Public Sector Pay Policy as these staff are civil servants with civil service terms and conditions. CalMac Ferries Ltd is a private company - their staff are not civil servants, so pay and other terms and conditions are determined outside of Public Sector Pay Policy. We consider the pay and benefits (including the civil service pension) for Marine Scotland seafarers are reasonable and competitive in the external job market which is reflected in the volume of applications received for recent job adverts. We will review the pay structure of Marine Scotland staff as part of the reform option in Pay Policy 2022-23.

Work to determine the most suitable procurement options for the remaining sections of the A9 dualling is ongoing. This is a complex exercise which looks at a number of factors including how the project can be delivered most efficiently by the industry, whilst minimising disruption to road users and helping to support economic recovery post-COVID. An update on the outcomes of this complex piece of work will be provided when the work is completed.

Since 2019, the number of Marine Scotland seafarers leaving the Scottish Government for alternative employment is less than 1.7% of our seafaring headcount. The key reason for leaving over this period was retirement. We therefore have no current concerns about recruitment and retention of Marine Scotland seafarers and we review this on a regular basis.

The law on employment rights and duties is reserved to the UK Parliament and so the Scottish Government do not currently have the legal powers to set mandatory minimum rates of pay or a stand-alone right to take legal action to ensure this minimum hourly rate for workers providing direct adult social care, in commissioned services, is delivered.

This uplift is instead being delivered through Local Government contracts and local commissioners have delivered funding for this uplift through a contract variation process with adult social care providers. This process is a means to ensure that providers who accepted the funding for the pay uplift contractually agreed to pass on that funding to eligible workers. In the event that funding is not passed onto the workforce to uplift pay, it will be for local areas commissioning teams to engage with providers to resolve and disputes where contractual obligations are not being met.

The Scottish Government recognises the current pressure on the Scottish transport sector as fuel prices become an ever increasing proportion of business’ overheads. The taxi sector plays a vitally important role in Scotland’s public transport network and we do not underestimate the contribution that the industry made during the pandemic. We have worked closely with stakeholders and local authorities to address the challenges faced by taxis and private hires, and we have provided over £107 million in grant support since the start of the pandemic. Funding is also being prioritised to focus on used electric vehicles to support a just transition to net zero, which will be available through interest free loans to the taxi sector.

The Scottish Government is using its limited powers and resources to respond to the cost of living crisis where possible, however the UK Government holds the reserved powers that can directly influence fuel costs. It should also be noted that the setting of taxi fares and licensing are entirely matters for each of the 32 independent licensing authorities (i.e. local authorities) in Scotland to determine and the Scottish Government believes that local authorities are best placed to make these decisions.