Chamber and committees

The Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism visited Ferguson Shipbuilders, PortGlasgow in June 2007 and BAE Systems Surface Fleet Solutions, Govan Yard in August2007.

On both occasionsthe minister met with Company Management and Trade Unions to discuss Scottish Governmentsupport for the Scottish shipbuilding industry.

Ministers will ensurea broad programme of visits is maintained in the future and this will include visitsto shipyards.

The following tablesets out the percentages of women and disabled staff in each of the Scottish Government’sDirectorates-General as at 1 December 2007.

	Female Staff as % of Total Head Count		Disabled Staff as % of Total Head Count
	Female	Male	Disabled
Paid Centrally Managed Staff *	90.47%	9.52%	7.93%
DG Economy and Chief Economic Adviser	47.03%	52.96%	2.96%
DG Education	57.53%	42.46%	4.59%
DG Environment	41.98%	58.01%	4.29%
DG Health and Chief Executive NHS Scotland	62.41%	37.58%	5.01%
DG Justice and Communities	56.23%	43.76%	4.20%
Permanent Secretary	41.76%	58.23%	5.19%
% of Total Head Count	50.01%	49.98%	4.42%

Note: *Includes staff on maternity/adoption leave, long term sicknessand un-posted staff.

The Scottish Governmentdoes not, and would not, consider using positive discrimination where it is notpermitted under current legislation. However, we do, and will, use where requiredand appropriate, positive action statements and images to encourage applicationsfrom under-represented groups.

In addition, we area Jobcentre Plus Disability Symbol User. This allows us to guarantee an interviewto all disabled candidates who meet the minimum requirements for any advertisedpost.

The information soughtcould only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Substantive answers are providedwhenever the information requested is available. The length of time involved willdepend on a number of factors.

The Scottish Governmentoperates a large number of different computer systems to support the delivery ofits business. There are corporate systems which are used and shared by all directoratesand other business specific application systems which are only used within specificdirectorates.

The large corporatesystems (with their name in brackets) are the accounting system (SEAS), the humanresources system (e HR), the records systems (ERDM) and office automation (SCOTS).The purpose and function of these systems is shown in the table below.

System	Purpose	Function
SEAS	To manage the allocation and use of financial resources	To maintain accounting records for the Scottish Government.
e HR	To support the management of staff employed by the Scottish Government.	To provide and maintain electronic records related to the employment of staff
ERDM	To manage the information resources of the Scottish Government	To provide an electronic records and document management system
SCOTS	To facilitate communications for systems and people across the Scottish Government	To provide electronic email and office automation services (word processing, spreadsheets, databases etc)

 

There are a largenumber of business specific applications operated both internally and externally.Examples of these systems are the SIACS suite operated by Rural Payments and Inspectionswithin the Environment and Rural Affairs Directorate and the SCOTXED system operatedby Lifelong Learning Directorate. SIACS is used to manage the payment of grantsto the farming community and SCOTXED is used to facilitate the exchange of datarelating to education between local authorities and the Scottish Government.

The suspension ofpolice officers is an operational policing matter for Chief Constables, and thisinformation is not collected centrally. However, Association of Chief Police Officers have informed us that as of 10 December 2007 approximately 40 officers are currently suspended, whichequates to 0.25 percent of the workforce. This figure will vary on a week by weekbasis as proceedings continue under the Police (Conduct) (Scotland) Regulations 1996. Information broken down by policeauthority is not available.

The ScottishGovernment has no current plans to remove or alter the upper age limit for theappointment of JPs. The current statutory age limit of 70 for retiring is thesame as that which applies to high court judges and sheriffs, and the ScottishGovernment sees no reason at present to make the retirement age of justices of the peace different from that of other members of the Scottish judiciary.

I refer themember to the answer to question S3W-5415 on 15 October 2007 which set out the current number of Special Advisersand their responsibilities. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the parliament's website, the search facility for which can befound at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Special advisersare appointed in accordance with Article 3 (4) of the Civil Service Order in Council1995 (as amended) for the purpose of providing assistance to the First Minister in the Scottish Government. The Model Contract forSpecial Advisers, incorporating the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers andthe Civil Service Code, is publicly available in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 44234).

There is noformal policy for the display of works of art in Scottish Government buildings.Decisions on where to display items are taken on a project by project or case-by-casebasis. Many items are displayed in areas accessible to visitors. Details ofVictoria Quay works of art have been placed in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 44253). A list of the artworks located in other ScottishGovernment buildings is currently being compiled and will be available in thesame way.

The followingnewspapers are purchased regularly for ministers on a daily basis: The Scotsman,The Herald, Financial Times, Daily Record, Sun, DailyMail, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, DailyExpress, The Guardian, Star, Mirror, The Press andJournal, The Courier, Evening News and Evening Times.

The followingnewspapers and magazines are purchased regularly for ministers on a weeklybasis: The Sunday Times, The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Mail,Sunday Express, The Sunday Herald, Sunday Post, The Scotlandon Sunday, Mail on Sunday, Independent on Sunday, News of the World, The Observer, The Economist, Farmers Weekly,Fishing News, Scottish Farmer, Oban Times, West HighlandFree Press, The New Statesman, The Spectator, Press Gazetteand TESS.