Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-27866.

At 31 March 2002, the Scottish Ambulance Service had 750 paramedics against a total accident and emergency establishment of 1,791. One of the service's objectives is to have a paramedic on every frontline accident and emergency ambulance by March 2005. The service has in place a paramedic training programme and is currently on course to achieve this objective.

In 1996-97, there were 332 paramedics working in the Scottish Ambulance Service. At 31 March 2002, this figure had increased to 750. This equates to an average of 83 technicians trained to paramedic level in each of the last five years.

The results of the Civil Service Commissioners last audits of the Scottish Administration's recruitment practices are summarised in the table.

Breaches	Recommendations	Observations
Scottish Executive1 - March 1999
None	The audit resulted in a number of recommendations were made concerning updating of recruitment guidance; publication of recruitment data, and tightening of procedures in relation to late applications, filing of campaign statistics, training of board chairs, setting and application of sift criteria, and recording of comments on interview assessment sheets. All have been adopted.	None
Scottish Prison Service - September 2001
None	Recommendations were made concerning the retention of adverts and job descriptions on recruitment files. All have been adopted.	None
Scottish Courts Service - July 1999
None	Recommendations were made concerning recording details of sift participants; setting review dates for casual contracts; clarification of rules regarding applicants with convictions; establishing regular independent audits; issuing of published data to the commissioners; establishing a process for re-instatement/re-employment applications; including a disability section in the recruitment manual; improving board reports, and separation of medical details from application forms. All have been adopted.	SCS were commended on their recruitment manual, procedure for handling New Deal applicants and running of practice interview boards.
Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service - June 2000
None	It was recommended that a more detailed checklist be introduced for checking of records. This recommendation was adopted.	Observations were made that COPFS consider conducting periodic spot checks of recruitment at regional offices and consider offering refresher courses to staff on selection panels.
Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency - September 2001
One breach was notified in relation to the lack of an independent audit check of recruitment systems. This has now been rectified with the introduction of a reciprocal arrangement with Fisheries Research Services.	Recommendations were made concerning issuing published data to the Commissioners; recording and monitoring of exceptions; strengthening procedures to ensure records are properly kept; ensuring sifting criteria are established at the outset and consistently applied; recording details of sifts; improving assessment methods; ensuring separation of health and equal opportunities data from application forms, and compilation of statistics. All recommendations have been adopted.	SFPA were commended on the extent of their published data.
Fisheries Research Service - March 2001
One breach was noted in relation to the lack of an independent audit check of recruitment systems. This has now been rectified with the introduction of a reciprocal arrangement with Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency.	Recommendations were made concerning improvements to the publication of recruitment data; monitoring of exceptions, and completion of sift and assessment sheets. All recommendations were adopted.	Observations were made commending the clarity of documentation and the state of campaign records and suggesting the provision of guidance to assessors on the scoring of candidates.
Historic Scotland - August 2001
None	Recommendations were made concerning improvement of the system of internal checks; submission of published data to commissioners, monitoring of Job Centre's compliance with the Recruitment Code; placement of advertisements on campaign files; establishment of sift criteria at outset and consistent application throughout; recording of sift details; improvement of assessment procedures; consistency of board reports; placement of statistics on files, and review of guidance to reflect the Recruitment Code. All were adopted.	None
Scottish Agricultural Science Agency - July 2000
None	Recommendations were made concerning procedures for internal checks of recruitment; publication of recruitment data; recording of trained interviewers; strengthening of procedures concerning the use of job centres, and improving procedures relating to record keeping and procedural notes. All were adopted.	None

Notes:1. At the time of this audit the Scottish Executive administered recruitment for Scottish Executive core departments, General Register Office for Scotland, National Archives of Scotland, Student Awards Agency for Scotland and the Scottish Public Pensions Agency.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-28019.

In 2001-02, 14 women (50%) were recruited to the senior civil service in the Scottish Executive. Prior to 2001-02 only a small number of (i) women (ii) ethnic minorities and (iii) disabled were recruited to the Senior Civil Service in the Scottish Executive. We are therefore unable to provide either figures or percentages to preserve confidentiality.

The recruitment procedures of the Scottish Executive are subject to audit by the Internal Audit Unit as part of the rolling programme of internal audits. An audit was carried out by the Internal Audit Unit in January 2002.

The information requested is not held centrally. The latest School Census, carried out in September 2001, showed that the pupil:computer ratio was 11:1 in primary schools and 5:1 in secondary schools. The targets for 2002 are 7.5:1 in primary schools and 5:1 in secondary schools. The deployment of these computers within schools is a matter for local decision.

The Scottish Executive, its agencies and associated departments and the former Scottish Office has employed a small number of individuals under WORKSTEP and its predecessor, the Supported Employment Programme, over the past five years. However, we are unable to provide either figures or percentages to preserve confidentiality. In addition, we have provided a total of 16 short-term supported work placements over the same period. The Executive's Diversity Strategy has set demanding targets for the recruitment and progression of under-represented groups, including staff with disabilities. Good progress is being made towards the achievement of these targets. Currently there are 125 members of staff in the Executive's core departments who have self-declared a disability and 207 in total.

The Executive commissioned Access Audits in 1996 on the office buildings it is responsible for. Following consideration of the audits a rolling programme of work was agreed in order to ensure that the buildings comply by January 2004, in line with the timing set out in Part III of the act.