Gender Equality and Best Value Inquiry
Members should have a paper detailing the key themes of the inquiry. Those themes come from the evidence that we have taken, although it is up to the committee to examine them and to agree or disagree with them, as they are only suggestions.
I have a few comments. Most of the paper is fine and presents the type of themes that we want to highlight in our report. However, I am not sure that they cover a starting point, which would be examples of current gender inequalities. Moreover, compulsory competitive tendering is not mentioned as a key theme. The adviser should mention the current situation as an overarching starting point.
The paper refers to the percentage of women versus men in the public sector, but the issue is not only about the percentage—there are probably more women than men employed in the public sector. Perhaps I am picking this up wrongly—it might be just a theme—but we must consider the kind of jobs that women do, comparisons with men's wages and the pay gap.
The paper also refers to service delivery and the gender balance in delivery of local authority services. We should mention elected members and the representation of women. It is important to highlight the fact that, unless the figure has changed recently, women make up only 22 per cent of local government representation. Another suggested key issue is leadership, political support and visible commitment. It is important to highlight women's representation at elected member level.
One of my other concerns is about awareness-raising activities and training. At last week's meeting, I raised the point about contracting the trade unions to deliver training and Joyce Magennis from the Scottish Trades Union Congress mentioned that the STUC had offered training to a bus company. The report should draw attention to those available skills.
It is also important to highlight the equal pay audits and the demands that the Executive is making on its bodies. We should ask whether that action can be translated to local authorities.
My final concern is about suppliers. The report to the Local Government Committee on the Local Government in Scotland Bill goes into some detail on that issue, but it must be considered in more depth in our gender report than it is in the short paper that we have been examining today.
Does everyone agree with the points that Elaine Smith has made to beef up the report and the suggested themes?
Members indicated agreement.
The committee will discuss the draft report on 1 October, I hope.