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Our commitment will see care workers being paid the Living Wage for all ‘waking’ hours including holiday and travel time. What we have agreed with stakeholders is that hours where an individual is sleeping (sleepovers) must be compliant with the 2014 Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling and therefore within working time directive. Due to an outstanding appeal on this ruling not all providers had implemented this. Therefore our commitment will provide a pay increase to those who were currently receiving less for these hours. This approach has been agreed with our partners group, including UNISON.

This is a positive step which will increase pay for care workers whilst maintaining the continuity of care for some of the most vulnerable care users. However, this is for a transitional period and our expectation is that in the future sleepover hours will be paid at Living Wage.

Within the Economy Theme the Scottish Government holds a range of gender-disaggregated data on the Labour Market including: The Labour Force Survey, Annual Population Survey and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. The Scottish Government also collects information on employment in local government by gender. These sources provide gender disaggregated estimates of economic status and earnings alongside a range of other socio-economic characteristics.

Further information disaggregated by gender is published on the Scottish Government Equality Evidence Finder.

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Equality/Equalities/DataGrid

The Scottish Government reviews statistical data requirements on the Economy through the Scottish Economic Statistics Consultants Group and fills evidence gaps where required.

We have made a national assessment of the cost of implementing this policy and have asked health and social care partnerships to make their own assessment of cost with providers.

The cost of implementing was always going to vary across authorities in Scotland depending on their individual circumstances such as the balance of care delivered in-house and externally and progress some had already made towards payment of the Living Wage.

Health and Social Care Partnerships will provide financial information through their Annual Performance Report and we are working jointly with COSLA and with Chief Finance Officers to develop a dataset to support collection for both of these.

The Energy Jobs Taskforce last met on 14 September 2016. During the meeting there was a substantive discussion on the longer term vision for the sector, work which the Oil and Gas Authority is leading alongside Oil and Gas UK (OGUK) and the Energy Jobs Taskforce. This was followed by a discussion on the work undertaken through the Support to Individuals and Retaining Talent and Skills work stream, an update was also provided by the UK Government’s Department of Work and Pensions detailing their support to the sector in Scotland.

The minutes of this meeting will be approved at the next Taskforce meeting, due to take place in Winter, and will then be published on the Scottish Government website. The minutes of the previous Energy Jobs Taskforce meetings are published on the Scottish Government website for viewing and can be accessed through the link below:

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Business-Industry/Energy/resources/working-groups/energy-advisory-board/Energy-Jobs-Taskforce/Minutes

The First Minister, the Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work and the Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy continue to engage with stakeholders within the oil and gas sector on a regular basis. The First Minister most recently met senior industry leaders at the opening of Statoil’s new headquarters, and at a meeting with Oil and Gas UK’s board in Aberdeen on 19 September 2016.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all of Scotland’s people are able to benefit from participation in enterprising activity. To this end, we launched a co-developed policy framework and action plan for women in enterprise in March 2014. This is the only one of its kind in the EU. We are working with partners across all sectors, including Women’s Enterprise Scotland, to deliver this framework. This financial year (2016-17) £200,000 has been committed to projects underpinning the Women in Enterprise Framework. More broadly, delivered by local authorities, Business Gateway offers a first point of contact for all publicly funded business support to pre-start, early stage and growth businesses regardless of location, gender, age, ethnicity, ability or type of business. The service includes a nationally consistent start-up and growth service with flexibility and discretion to meet local needs and opportunities.

Monitoring and compliance of the public sector equality duties falls to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The Commission published a series of reports entitled ‘Measuring Up’ between June 2013 and August 2016. These can accessed online:https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/public-sector-equality-duty-scotland/scotland-public-sector-equality-duty-projects/measuring

The Historic Environment Scotland Act 2014 created a new public body, Historic Environment Scotland (HES), to carry out the regulatory and other functions which were formerly delivered by, or on behalf of, Scottish Ministers.

The information you requested is not held centrally and is an operational matter for Historic Environment Scotland who are responsible for delivering Scottish Ministers’ functions relating to the properties in their care. I have therefore referred your question to the HES Chief Executive who will reply to you directly.

There would be no changes to the eligibility criteria for 25% single person’s discount as a result of the Government’s reform of Council Tax, including for those in Bands E to H.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 requires contracting authorities to produce and publish a procurement strategy setting out how they will meet the obligations of the Act. Procurement strategies must include a statement of their general policy on the payment of a living wage to people involved in delivering public contracts. Authorities must publish their first strategy by 31 December 2016, covering the remainder of their current Financial Year and the next full Year. At the end of this period, contracting authorities must also produce an annual report on whether their procurement activities complied with the strategy, and where they didn’t, how they intends to ensure compliance in the future. Scottish Ministers will then produce an annual report on procurement activity based upon public bodies individual annual reports. It is anticipated that the first such report will be published in early 2019.

The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 contains a number of measures to increase transparency of public procurement including requiring contracting authorities with an annual regulated procurement spend of £5 million or more to produce and publish annual procurement strategies, setting out how each authority will meet the obligations of the Act. Authorities must publish their first strategy by 31 December 2016, covering the remainder of their current Financial Year and the next full Year. At the end of this period, authorities are required to publish an annual report, setting out whether their regulated procurements complied with their strategies. Once the authorities have published their annual reports, the Act then requires Scottish Ministers to produce a report providing an overview of procurement activity in Scotland, based on the information contained in contracting authorities' annual reports. It is anticipated that the first such report will be published in early 2019.