Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S6O-02398 on 21 June 2023 which is available at Meeting of the Parliament: 21/06/2023 | Scottish Parliament Website .

As set out in a letter I sent to Pam Duncan Glancy MSP on 27 June and as covered during portfolio questions in Parliament on 28 June https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-28-06-2023?meeting=15400&iob=131343#orscontributions_M16199E320P809C2508836 I remain committed to working with the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers to explore how we can progress a reduction in teachers’ class contact time by ninety minutes per week (from the current contracted figure of 22.5 hours to 21 hours). To help inform this discussion and ensure effective and evidence-informed workforce planning I will be commissioning an external piece of work which will consider and bring together a range of factors, including effective local and national teacher workforce planning, pupil teacher ratios and the projected decline in the number of school-aged children in Scotland.

A grant of £15 million for the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for Adults was distributed to Third Sector Interfaces across Scotland in August 2022, to support local, grassroots community organisation. £14,975,678.28 had been distributed by the end of March 2023. Third Sector Interfaces reported a total underspend of £24,321.72 for that year.

A grant of £1,136,695 was provided to support administration costs and the capacity building efforts of Third Sector Interfaces in 2022-2023. Third sector interfaces reported a total underspend on the administration grant of £4,948.63.

The Scottish Government has, since 2016 to the present day, provided funding to the Progress Education Trust of £276,494.75. The funding has been provided for Progress Educational Trust to produce educational reproductive events in Scotland.

The Women’s Health Plan: A plan for 2021 – 2024 aims to reduce health inequalities and improve health outcomes for women and girls. The Plan focusses on a specific set of priorities and thyroid conditions are not specifically mentioned in this iteration of the Plan.

However we do recognise that many women are significantly affected by the condition and we are committed to ensuring that people living with hypothyroidism are able to access the best possible support from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care. Information on symptoms and treatments are available at NHS Inform .

The priorities for any future Women’s Health Plan are not yet determined. Future aims and priorities will be developed in collaboration with women and girls, including our lived experience stakeholder group, clinical experts and relevant stakeholders alongside the most up-to-date evidence base.

The Scottish Government recognises improving population health as a key priority and invests in a range of initiatives to support people with health conditions to sustain or return to work, including Healthy Working Lives (HWL). HWL is a programme delivered by Public Health Scotland (PHS) and statistics on the online platform is a matter for PHS. The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

Pupil Equity Funding allocations are updated and published annually to take into account new, closed and merged schools of that year. The 2023-24 Pupil Equity Funding allocations are currently being finalised and will be communicated to local authorities shortly with publication in due course thereafter. All previous allocations can be found here: Pupil attainment: closing the gap - Schools - gov.scot (www.gov.scotwww.gov.scot) .

For 2022-23, over £130m of Pupil Equity Funding was to allocated to 97% of schools in Scotland, schools in South Lanarkshire Council received over £8.9m, and of which £1,916,375 was allocated to schools in the G74 and G75 postcodes. The breakdown of 2022-23 allocations for these schools can be found in the following table.

Securing positive effects for biodiversity is one of six statutory outcomes for the National Planning Framework, as identified in section 3A(3)(c) of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, as amended. National Planning Framework (NPF4) was adopted and published on 13 February 2023. Improving biodiversity is a cross-cutting theme which runs throughout NPF4. Our strategy and policies support development that helps to secure positive effects for biodiversity.

Current building regulations include a standard which promote sustainable development, including advice on how biodiversity can be well served as a topic in new school developments – this is published under Aspect 4 of our ‘statement of sustainability’, standard 7.1 in the Non-domestic Technical Handbook . We plan to revisit this topic, in the context of other ongoing activity, to understand further opportunities for building regulations to make a positive contribution to biodiversity within new developments.

National Planning Framework 4 Policy 3 (c), which relates to local developments, is underpinned by NatureScot’s Developing With Nature guidance published on 13 February 2023. This guidance includes 24 measures that development can incorporate to enhance biodiversity, one of which is Homes for Small Birds (measure 13).

The Swift Conservation website also provides guidance to the building industry on swift bricks and nest boxes Swift Conservation Homepage (swift-conservation.org) .

NHS Boards regularly assess continence patients’ needs, with the assessments undertaken by dedicated Bladder and Bowel Teams or community nursing staff. This ensures that patients’ needs are met, either through treatment or through provision of appropriate containment products. Referrals can also be made by patients’ GPs where necessary, and also by a range of other healthcare professionals including pharmacists, consultants, and care home staff.

Where a patient has been assessed as requiring continence products, these are provided by their local NHS Board’s continence service on prescription. As such, any person that is suffering from incontinence, such as men living with prostate cancer, should seek a referral to their local continence service in order that their incontinence can be assessed, treated where appropriate, or managed through the prescription of continence products.

I refer the member to the answer to question: S6W-19833 on 31 July 2023. 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 .