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The Scottish Government has repeatedly made clear that the continued under-representation of women in decision making positions, including on public boards in Scotland is unacceptable. Where current devolved powers allow, decisive action will be taken as a matter of priority to ensure that women are properly represented at senior levels, including on public boards. Later this year, we will introduce the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Bill, a key commitment of our 2016-17 Programme for Government: A Plan for Scotland.

The Bill will build on a transformative programme of improvement work, led by the Scottish Government's Public Appointments Team and the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland to improve the diversity of ministerial public appointments, which has already yielded positive results. In 2016, 43% of applicants and 59% of those appointed were women, an increase of 12 and 20 percentage points, respectively, since 2012.

As at 23 March 2017, 19 of 81 (23.45%) chairs of regulated public boards in Scotland were women.

As referred to in the answer to question S5W-08112 on 29 March 2017, the information requested is given in the table entitled “Business Pledge – Statistical overview – February 2017”, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib number 57653).

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 information requested is given in the table entitled “Business Pledge – Statistical overview – February 2017”, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib number 57653).

The Scottish Government is committed to improving female representation on public boards. Later this year, we will introduce the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Bill, a key commitment of our 2016-17 Programme for Government: A Plan for Scotland. The draft Bill sets a gender representation objective for non-executive members of public boards, requiring certain action to be taken in the appointing of non-executive members towards the achievement of the objective. A consultation on the draft Bill closed on 17 March 2017 and responses will be independently analysed to inform and support the development of the Bill.

The Bill builds on the positive progress that has already been made to improve the diversity of ministerial appointments through a transformational programme of improvement work led by the Scottish Government’s Public Appointments Team and the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life. Activities include: reaching out to potential candidates in new and creative ways; promoting succession planning by public bodies with a view to identifying and developing potential candidates; challenging the public perceptions of ‘typical’ public appointees; simplifying the application process and testing different interview styles; using alternative assessment methods to allow candidates to demonstrate their skills, and developing a new partnership approach with the Commissioner for Ethical Standards to enhance creativity and expertise.

Details of members appointed by Scottish Ministers to regulated public boards is available at http://www.appointed-for-scotland.org/. Information on the diversity of ministerial public appointments to regulated public boards in Scotland is published annually by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland. The Commissioner's Annual Report and Accounts 2015/16 shows that at 31 December 2015, 42% of board members including chairs, were female, an increase from 38.4% in 2014-15. As 1 March 2017, this figure had risen to 45.8%.

I shall reply to the member as soon as possible.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport’s Annual Accounts for 2015-16 are available on their website. These provide a breakdown on revenue streams, including passenger and cargo. I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-05715 on 10 January 2017. 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. My previous response provided the gross revenue generated from all military flights for 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16. Military is accounted for under “other aviation” in the following table.

* Please note that this accounting period runs from 22 November 2013 to 31 March 2015 in line with Annual Accounts produced following the Scottish Government taking ownership of the airport.

Figures for 2016-17 are not yet available.

There are no plans to add additional elements to the Scottish Business Pledge at this time. Formal evaluation of the Business Pledge, scheduled for 2017, will provide further evidence of company behaviours.

There are already various sources of published official statistics by occupation, industry and work-pattern for Scotland, published by the Scottish Government and the Office for Nationals Statistics via www.nomisweb.co.uk. Examples of these are as follows:

Scottish Government Publications

Relevant Scottish Government published statistical tables, relating to employment by occupation, industry and work pattern in Scotland are listed below

Regional Employment patterns in Scotland- Local Authority Tables

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/Local-Authority-Tables

Table 1.23: Proportion and level of people in employment (aged 16+) by occupational group (SOC 2010) and gender, Scotland, 2004-2015

Table 1.24: Proportion and level of people in employment (aged 16+) by occupational group (SOC 2010) and local authority, Scotland, 2004-2015

These tables will be updated with 2016 data in May 2017

Gender pay gap by occupation

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/Earnings

Table 2.7: Gender Pay Gap – Median Full-Time Hourly Earnings by Occupation (SOC) 2011-2016

This table will be updated for 2017 in October 2017

Growth Sector Statistics

Note also that the Scottish Government publishes a wide range of economic and business statistics, including total employment, for the growth sectors at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/Publications/GrowthSectors

Office for National Statistics Publications

Official estimates of employment by Occupation for Scotland for Ethnic Group by occupation of employment; Occupation major group of employment; Occupation sub-major group of employment are available at:

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk

Data on levels, distribution and make-up of earnings and hours worked for employees in Scotland, by gender and full-time/part-time status in all occupations (according to SOC codes) are also published by the Office for National Statistics at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/regionbyoccupation2digitsocashetable3

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/regionbyoccupation4digitsoc2010ashetable15

The Scottish Government holds official sources of labour Market Statistics including both; the Annual Population Survey and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data sets. We monitor the relevance of Labour Market statistical outputs for Scotland against customer needs through various mechanisms including engagement with external stakeholder through SCOTSTAT http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/scotstat and we will develop and produce new statistical outputs and analysis where possible and required.