Chamber and committees

Provisions relating to the use of sexual history and character evidence in sexual offence trials are contained in sections 274 and 275 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. The operation of the law in this area was subject to a full and independent evaluation in 2007. The law in this area has not changed substantively since the 2007 evaluation.

In December 2015 a commitment was made to Parliament to undertake a small high level data collection project to review the usage of the provisions in section 274/275 of the 1995 Act. This exercise concluded in June 2016 and the results can be found here:

http://www.parliament.scot/General%20Documents/20160624CSfJtoConvenerILR.pdf .

The Scottish Government is working with Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service to interrogate this data further. This exercise will inform any future consideration of the operation of the law in this area.

In an interview with the BBC broadcast on 1 May 2018, Lord Carloway referred to vulnerable witnesses, including rape complainers, not necessarily having to go to court to give evidence as “the ultimate objective”.

The Scottish Government is supportive of a greater use of pre-recorded evidence for vulnerable witnesses. We have committed to introducing primary legislation to add to recent improvements to strengthen and improve the rights and experiences of victims and witnesses and remove any legislative barriers to enable the greater use of pre-recorded evidence. The Bill will be introduced to Parliament before the end of this session.

Scottish Government research in 2016 into the drivers of the gender pay gap showed that the gap in the finance sector was mainly due to women not progressing to senior positions as quickly as their male counterparts or to roles more likely to attract bonus payments. This is unacceptable.

To help employers we are providing £205,000 to Close the Gap for July 2017- June 18 to challenge and change employment practices and workplace cultures.

As announced in the Child Poverty Action Plan we are establishing a Gender Pay Gap Working Group that includes expert stakeholders such as Close the Gap, Engender and STUC. The working group, which I will chair, will identify specific actions to reduce gender pay gaps across sectors as a key element of the Scottish Government’s inclusive growth vision.

In September 2017 the Scottish Government awarded £48,500 to Women Returners Ltd to deliver the Returners to Financial Services Scotland Programme. This will assist professionally qualified women who have had a career break to return to work in the finance sector.

The Scottish Government will continue to encourage all employers to tackle gender inequalities. That is why we promote Close the Gap’s free online toolkit to assist employers to report their gender pay gap to comply with the regulations. We are also providing £159,000 for 2018-19 to Family Friendly Working Scotland Partnership to support and promote development of family friendly workplaces.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-16407 on 16 May 2018. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The Scottish Government works closely with a range of key partners to engage with and consult LGBTI people.

In February 2017, I announced three year funding under the Equality Budget. As part of this, grant funding was announced for a range of organisations working to promote LGBTI equality in Scotland, including work to address discrimination and tackle hate crime. Funding was announced for three years, with the first funding year (running from 1 July 2017 – 30 June 2018) confirmed and the next two (July 2018 – June 2019 and July 2019 – end June 2020) on an indicative basis. The amounts for
‎ 2018-19 have now also been confirmed and the funding for 2017-18 and 2018-19 are set out as follows.

2017-18 funding

The Scottish Government welcomes the transparency that the Equality Act 2010 (Gender Pay Gap Information) Regulation 2017 can help deliver. All those subject to the Act's provisions should comply with them and not seek to avoid reporting any gender pay gap in their organisation.

The Scottish Government recognises that sexual violence is an abuse of human rights and is committed to preventing and eradicating it in Scotland. We agree that it is vital that survivors of rape and sexual assault have early access to crisis services that meet their needs, and we are working with Rape Crisis Scotland to determine the best way to support services to meet demand.

We are also investing over £2m (2017-20) through our Rape Crisis Fund in resources for 16 rape crisis centres across Scotland and in addition, we recently announced £1.7m in funding from Justice Budgets to support advocacy in the justice system for victims to be delivered by local centres. We also provide nearly half a million pounds (2017-2020) to support the operation of the National Rape Crisis Helpline and continue to invest resources in a number of organisations working to tackle all forms of violence against women and support survivors.

Information on the number of people normally resident in Northern Ireland accessing family planning services in Scotland is not collated centrally.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting breastfeeding by new mothers through a range of activities which include:

• The publication of the Improving Maternal and Infant Nutrition: A Framework for Action (2011). As part of the implementation of the Framework the Scottish Government appointed a National Maternal and Infant Nutrition Co-ordinator to coordinate the breastfeeding improvement activity and to link with other partners across Scotland and the rest of the UK.
• The Scottish Government launched a replacement of the previous Feedgood factor website in June 2016. http://www.feedgood.scot
• The Scottish Government also provides funding to support the National Breastfeeding Helpline. http://www.nationalbreastfeedinghelpline.org.uk/ and other third sector organisations such as the NCT, to offer peer support in the community
• The Scottish Government supported the development of the “Off to a Good Start” booklet http://www.healthscotland.com/documents/120.aspx published by NHS Health Scotland and provided to all new mothers early in their pregnancy.

These activities are monitored through regular reporting with each organisation as well as national statistics. We also recently commissioned a National Maternal and Infant Nutrition Survey and this will be used to identify key areas to focus activity and drive improvement.

Since 2011 the Scottish Government has invested more than £15.8m directly to NHS Boards for implementation of the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Framework, of which breastfeeding support is a key component. We have also continued to invest in a National expert post to support the implementation of the Framework. The current post holder is assisting Boards to offer the highest standard of support for all breastfeeding mothers.

In addition, we directly fund a Scottish UNICEF post and the first stage UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation. Scotland was the first country in the UK to have 100% of its maternity units meeting the UNICEF Baby Friendly best practice standards. Over 90% of our Health and Social Care Partnerships and the largest Scottish Neonatal units now have full accreditation.

We use national statistics, reported in October each year, using routine data captured through the Child Health Surveillance System (CHSP) to monitor breastfeeding activity across Scotland.