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Official statistics covering processing times for Child Disability Payment are published as a part of the regularly scheduled quarterly publication. The latest Child Disability Payment statistical publication was published on Tuesday 16 May 2023. Information on the average processing time by month is included in table 9. This publication is available from https://www.gov.scot/collections/social-security-scotland-stats-publications/#benefitsforcarersanddisabilityassistance .

Processing time is the number of working days from part 2 of the application being received to a decision being made or the application being withdrawn. It does not include time to make payments. We would normally advise to allow up to 5 days to reach a bank account once a payment is authorised.

I refer the member to the question S6W-17628 on 25 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 .

Information on the number of lone parents receiving Scottish Government funded employability support in each year since 1999 is not held centrally.

Official statistics for Fair Start Scotland (launched April 2018), and experimental statistics for No One Left Behind, our strategic approach to employability delivery (launched April 2019), are published quarterly by the Scottish Government and include data on lone parents. The publication relates only to Scottish Government funded activity data and not the entirety of employability related activity in each local authority area.

The most recent publication was on 22 February 2023 (Scotland's Devolved Employment Services: statistical summary February 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)). Statistics available for lone parents supported are shown below.

Table 1: Number of lone parents joining Fair Start Scotland from year 1 (April 2018 to March 2019) to year 5 so far (April 2022 to December 2022)

Ministers are content to provide any updates on progress which parliamentary committees would find helpful as part of their normal ongoing engagement on progress within their portfolios.

All four settlement cases were dealt with in accordance with the procedure set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual. Business cases for the proposed settlements were submitted to the relevant Cabinet Secretary at that time: Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills (Shirley Anne-Somerville) and Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport (Jeanne Freeman). The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy (Kate Forbes) was also sighted on all cases.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17864 on 23 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

The HMP Glasgow project was advertised to the market in March 2022 to commence procurement of pre-construction services as part of a two-stage procurement process in order to progress the overall delivery of the programme. The Scottish Prison Service awarded the pre-construction services contract in July 2022. Timescales for the delivery of the prison will be confirmed once the design phase is concluded.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-17454 on 12 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 .

Fundamentally, access to education is an issue of fairness. Scotland has a truly world-class higher education system, perhaps the most powerful weapon there is to combat socioeconomic inequality. It is our firm belief that Scotland has a moral, social and economic duty to tackle this inequality. We remain committed to the principle that access to education should be based on the ability to learn and not the ability to pay.

With regards to the cost of living crisis, we are committed to providing a student support system that is agile and supportive and prioritises support for those who need it most. We have taken positive steps to reform the student support landscape and made significant progress to deliver a student support package equivalent to the living wage. The most vulnerable students, including estranged and care experienced students, can now access up to £9,000 per year through bursaries and loans. Scottish Government have also reaffirmed their position that, unlike elsewhere in the UK, tuition fees for Scottish students studying in Scotland are free.

We understand that this is a challenging time for many students. We have provided £16.8m in hardship funding to higher education students studying in colleges and universities for the current academic year to support students experiencing financial hardship. We have also provided £135m in student support for FE students attending college in the current academic year. Colleges can use these funds flexibly to meet demand across FE student bursaries, childcare and hardship funding.

The Access Data Short-Life Working Group is currently due to report to the Access Delivery Group in September 2023.