Current status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to deal with sexual harassment in public sector workplaces in light of a report by Zero Tolerance suggesting that two-thirds of the women surveyed had experienced or witnessed sexual harassment or innuendo.
The Scottish Government realises the importance of tackling all forms of sexual harassment as set out in Equally Safe, Scotland's strategy to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls. We are currently investing £11.8 million in 2016-2017 to support a range of projects and initiatives, as well as take forward the implementation of Equally Safe.
We are working closely with Zero Tolerance and others through the Capability and Capacity workstream of Equally Safe to consider further steps to support public sector workplaces as employers in this area, and have also provided funding to Zero Tolerance to develop their Policy, Action, Communication and Training (PACT) resource which can be used by employers to support efforts to tackle violence against women in the workplace. As a major public sector employer, the Scottish Government intends to lead by example and review its own policy in this area using the PACT resource. We will be forwarding a draft delivery plan for Equally Safe in the spring outlining further steps in this area.