Seòmar agus comataidhean

Richmond Davies, one group that we have not talked about is people who have been released from prison. You may be aware that The Lancet recently published multinational research that included Scottish data—Scotland was one of the eight countries covered in that research. It found that suicide was the second-highest cause of death in the first week following their release. Is Public Health Scotland making the connections that Neil Mathers has just been talking about? Are we gathering the right data? That links back to Annie Wells’s questions about how we collect and use data and therefore how we feed that into our strategic work.

Good morning, minister, and thank you for your contribution so far.

In the 10 years since the 2014 act was passed, we have seen more focus on issues such as the climate impact of our work, the shift to net zero, renewed interest in community wealth building, as you have already spoken about, and the development of regional economic partnerships to focus on local resilience, sustainability and the like. The vision in the five-year procurement strategy that was published last year focuses on maximising value for the people of Scotland and putting public procurement at the heart of a sustainable economy.

Are we using procurement to the best possible effect to meet the challenges in the 2014 act around the sustainable procurement duty and deliver the positive social and environmental outcomes that we know it can deliver?

Thanks for that. You talked about the delivery of goods, services and works, but around those also come the jobs and pay and conditions of the people who are delivering those goods, services and works. It is not only those individuals; it is the communities that they live in and support, and those local economies. We can see the tracking of fair work requirements through some of the contracting processes, and I hear what you say about the bureaucracy of following that all the way through. We have seen really positive progress, as you outlined, around the real living wage, but that is easily defined, easy to measure and easy to monitor.

There has perhaps been less progress around gender representation and carbon accounting, for instance. What thought has the Scottish Government given to defining more clearly what we mean by progress in those areas? They are fundamental to the sustainable communities that rely on the economies that we are talking about, but if we do not have a clear understanding of what we mean when we talk about gender equality or carbon accounting, those who are delivering the goods, services and works are working, perhaps not blind, but with good intentions although without a clearly defined focus or outcome.

Okay, thank you—I will leave it there.

It is complex and interconnected.

That is helpful, and it is interesting to hear those examples. We heard from witnesses that there is a lot of good will and intention, but that quite often price drowns out the other factors and negates the positive social or environmental outcomes. We also heard that the reducing inequalities element has got lost as far as measuring the social and environmental outcomes is concerned. There is a specific example, which may link to the threshold point, relating to subcontracting and secondary supply chains down the way, because the contractors are not obliged to provide information around the environmental and social outcomes.

How can we ensure that we see the maximising of value in the round rather than just a focus on price?

Thank you.

My final question comes back to education. Do you anticipate changes to the guidance for health and wellbeing education in schools and elsewhere to address stigma and misconceptions about HIV and increase understanding and awareness?

Good morning, minister. Thank you for being with us and thank you for your opening comments.

In either your opening statement or in response to the convener’s questions, you said that raising awareness is key to the crucial work of challenging and tackling stigma. You mentioned the short film, but we also know that storylines in dramas can have a significant and positive impact by raising general societal awareness, encouraging people to get tested and demystifying some of the process. What plans are in place to amplify and extend the campaigns that we have seen in recent months to focus on raising awareness and tackling stigma?

I appreciate that you want to evaluate the outcome of the Terrence Higgins Trust film and the impact that it has had. There might be other ways of getting the message out to different audiences to identify some of the cultural barriers that people can experience. We know that stigma can be compounded in areas of intersectionality such as culture, women, black and ethnic minority groups. Other than films and that kind of targeted project, how does the Scottish Government plan to take an intersectional approach to tackling stigma, either through the delivery plan or elsewhere?