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The right to public assembly is an important human right that the Scottish Government is committed to uphold.

We have no plans to extend the provisions in the Public Order Act 2023 which create new offences and new police powers relating to protests in England and Wales. In May 2022, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans wrote to the Minister of State for Crime, Policing and Probation and confirmed that the Scottish Government would not be requesting that any of the provisions in the Public Order Bill be extended to Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17797 on 17 May 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

In March 2022, the Scottish Government agreed that the Delivering Equally Safe (DES) funding period should be extended beyond September 2023, to allow suitable lead in time for a new funding model to be developed, following the conclusion of the Independent Strategic Funding Review.

Rape Crisis Scotland (RCS) and its centres will continue to receive Delivering Equally Safe (DES) Funding until March 2025, along with all the other DES funded projects.

Ministers will consider the Funding Review findings when they are published on 6 June.

Road safety remains an absolute priority for the Scottish Government. We remain determined that we continue to make investments which supports our Road Safety Framework to 2030, which sets out our vision for Scotland to have the best road safety performance in the world by 2030. This includes an ambitious long term goal where no one is seriously injured or killed on our roads by 2050.

The Scottish Government budget for 2023-24 includes over £31 million for road safety. This has been allocated to areas such as our Trunk Road Casualty Reduction Programme, our Safety Camera Programme, work to expand 20 mph areas in communities across Scotland and a Road Safety Improvement Fund which will support councils to reduce casualties and risks on their roads.

Scottish Government expenditure is allocated across portfolios to various sectors, including the third sector, to improve a wide range of outcomes. Some Scottish Government funding will be issued through third sector intermediary organisations. Spending is not all specifically classified as to whether or not it is allocated to third-sector organisations to deliver services. Consequently the figures requested are not available.

The Scottish Government is clear that the UK Government’s cruel and inhumane Illegal Migration Bill should be scrapped immediately. The Bill will cause significant harm to victims of human trafficking. It will facilitate even greater control by perpetrators as a consequence of its provisions which restrict access to vital support and assistance and will likely deter victims from reporting their situation for fear of removal.

The Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture wrote to the UK Minister of State for Immigration on 9 March setting out our position and this was followed by a further letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice on 25 April.

The Scottish Parliament rejected the UK Bill during a debate on 25 April. We set out our intent to lodge a legislative consent memorandum on two clauses within the Bill which alter the executive competence of the Scottish Ministers. We will recommend that Parliament withhold legislative consent to these provisions. We continue to monitor the Bill closely as it is considered by the House of Lords.

The Scottish Government does not support the building of new nuclear fission power stations in Scotland under current technologies.

Under the current Contract for Difference (CfD) awarded by the UK Government to Hinkley Point C, the electricity that will be generated will be priced at £92.50 per megawatt hour (in 2012 prices). Wind is one of the cheapest forms of electricity - electricity generated from offshore wind is priced at £37.65 per megawatt hour in CfD allocation round 4 (in 2012 prices). Additionally, Hinkley Point C’s CfD will last for a 35-year term, which is not afforded to other technologies that only receive guarantees for 15 years.

The UK Government has committed over £700 million to cover 50% of the development costs of Sizewell C – evidence that nuclear can have significant up-front costs to the public purse before construction even begins.

Nuclear power stations require nuclear material for their operation and generate radioactive waste, both of which can involve hazardous radiation and require complex and expensive handling for security as well as public health and environmental protection.

Our Equally Safe strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls (VAWG) emphasises the importance of challenging the underpinning attitudes which enable such violence to take place.

The 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. Every secondary school in Scotland is eligible for ESAS. Rape Crisis Scotland have reported that currently 77 schools are registered with an ESAS account. Rape Crisis Scotland is continuing to work with local authority education leads, VAWG partnerships and other third sector partners across Scotland to encourage and support schools to engage with ESAS.

We also fund and support other education-based programmes and initiatives aimed at tackling violence against women and girls and the attitudes which perpetuate it such as; the 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 Women’s Health Plan: A plan for 2021 – 2024 aims to reduce health inequalities and improve health outcomes for women and girls. This iteration of the Plan focusses on a specific set of priorities where there is particular evidence of inequalities (heart health) and where women have told us improvements are needed (menopause and menstrual health including endometriosis).

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 will continue to work with the Scottish Perinatal Network and will write to NHS Boards again in June to assess how implementation of PlGF testing is progressing.

The Scottish Government expects all NHS Boards in Scotland to take note of the Scottish Health Technologies Group recommendations, published on 23 March 2023, and take steps to ensure that any woman who requires access to placental growth factor (PlGF) based tests as part of her maternity care can do so. We will continue to work with the Scottish Perinatal Network and will write to NHS Boards again in June to assess how implementation of PlGF testing is progressing.