Chamber and committees

There is no central record held of complaints of a racial nature made against the Scottish Executive. In the period 1999-2004 there has been only one such recorded complaint made by a Scottish Executive member of staff, in 2002. Figures for 2005 are not available yet.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-22117 on 20 January 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

There have been no equal pay claim settlements within the Scottish Executive core departments since 1999.

It is not necessary or appropriate for the Scottish Executive to make such a recommendation. The UK Government will decide for itself what action is required in this respect.

Of the 8,009 people registered as social workers with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) at 11 January 2006 (this includes people who have a social work qualification but are not practising as social workers), 6,237 had completed the equal opportunities form which is a voluntary part of the registration process. Of the 6,237, 123 declared themselves as being from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, representing 1.97% of the total who completed the form. Registration of social workers commenced in 2003 and this is the first year in which comprehensive data has been available. A report on registered social workers will be published by the SSSC in April 2006.

In 2005, information on staff ethnicity was collected for the first time as part of the Annual Census of Staff of Scottish Local Authority Social Work Services. The results of this census will be published in April 2006.

There have been a total of 55 recorded cases of bullying and harassment raised by Scottish Executive employees since 1999. In line with its Dignity at Work policy, the Executive takes all complaints of this nature very seriously. It aims to ensure that all staff have the opportunity to work in an environment where they feel safe and secure and are not subject to unacceptable behaviour.

1999	8
2000	13
2001	15
2002	6
2003	9
2004	4

 

Figures for 2005 are not yet available.

The number of Scottish Executive employees recommended for an honour in the (a) Queen’s Birthday Honours List and (b) New Years Honours List in each year since 1999 are detailed in the following table.

Honours List	Recommendations
New Year 2006	6
Birthday 2005	7
New Year 2005	6
Birthday 2004	5
New Year 2004	5
Birthday 2003	8
New Year 2003	8
Birthday 2002	6
New Year 2002	7
Birthday 2001	7
New Year 2001	4
Birthday 2000	7
New Year 2000	10
Birthday 1999	5
New Year 1999	9

 

The Scottish Executive has commissioned the following research in this area:

Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Scotland: a Skills and Aspirations Audit  (March 2004) and Minority Ethnic Enterprise in Scotland: a National Scoping Study (June 2005).

All three Emergency Serviceshave stocks of protective equipment including respirators, breathing equipment orair filter units, as follows:

The Scottish Ambulance Serviceholds 1,000 Chemical Personal Protection Equipment Suits which have, as an integralpart, air filtration units, each of which uses two filters. These suits are intendedto be used by trained ambulance service personnel;

UK-wide the Police Service has5% of its officers trained and equipped (including respirators) in dealing withchemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents;

The Scottish Fire and RescueService do not presently use respirators with filters as they would use full breathingapparatus at all times.

It is not possible to provideinformation on a local authority basis as all decontamination equipment held bythe emergency services is mobile and any response to a decontamination incidentwould be Scotland wide. Dependent on the incident resources could alsobe called upon from England and Wales.

No. The Scottish Prison Servicemay only detain a person for lawful purposes. Torture is prohibited under Article3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Details about the number of modernapprentices (MAs) broken down by framework and gender since 2001 is an operationalmater for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The information is not held centrally.

However, Scottish Enterprisehave published MA figures for males and females in the top 12 frameworks since 1998-99,as well as the gender split for each framework by age groups 16 to 24 and over 25sfor the year ending 31 March 2005.

These tables are available onthe Scottish Enterprise website:

www.scottish-enterprise.com/sedotcom_home/training-providers-top/training-providers/performance-and-reports.htm?siblingtoggle=1.