Seòmar agus comataidhean

A revised Scottish RefugeeIntegration Forum action plan will be published in the autumn as part of the nationalstrategy and action plan for race equality in Scotland.

To date four strategicgroups have been established to finalise action plans that will inform the ScottishExecutive’s National Strategy and Action Plan for Race Equality, which is dueto be published later this year. The groups are:

Race Equality in Rural Areas- to help build inclusive rural communities.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality/18934/15832.

Gypsies/Travellers - toenable the provision of more accessible, co-ordinated and good quality servicesfor Gypsies/Travellers.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality/gypsiestravellers/strategy.

Ethnic Minorities and theLabour Market - to increase the number of people from ethnic minorities in thelabour market and to address barriers to their participation.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality/18934/15832.

Scottish Refugee IntegrationForum - to address any new and emerging issues affecting integration since thelast Action Plan was published.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/Equality/Refugees-asylum/integration.

Group members have been selectedfor their personal knowledge and expertise of the issues, and attend meetingseither in an individual capacity or as representatives of the organisationsfrom the public, private and voluntary sectors that we have invited toparticipate in our work.

Notes of all strategicgroups’ meetings, which include group members’ and attendees’ details, areavailable on the Scottish Executive website at the addresses given above. Thesepages will be updated as more information becomes available.

 

The Scottish Executive doesnot hold information on the number of unaccompanied asylum seeker children in Scotland. However,I understand that the Home Office maintains a database on unaccompanied asylumseeker children who are supported by local authorities.

The Home Office is primarilyresponsible for ensuring the implementation of this Directive. However, therehave been discussions between the Executive and the Home Office to ensure that,where devolved services are involved, Scottish legislation is compliant with therequirements of the Directive.

The Scottish Executive doesnot hold this information as it is for the Home Office to consider requests forpermission to work.

The Scottish Executive doesnot measure destitution among asylum seekers.

The Scottish Executive has noplans to amend the bursary regulations to include such children. Executive fundsto authorities towards the cost of bursaries cease at the end of this financialyear, as bursaries are superseded by the Education Maintenance Allowance.

The SPCB is committed to providingaccessible facilities for disabled people and their carers, and has taken anumber of steps to enable the equal participation of disabled people and theircarers in the Parliament including accessing the tours and other major events, theinstallation of adult changing benches and the provision of special receptaclesin the accessible toilets located in the public foyer and garden lobby. Wecontinue to monitor and improve upon our accessibility and as part of this weare currently investigating the feasibility of installing a hoist into one of the “megaloos”.

As part of a widerinitiative to implement the new Disability Equality Duty which will come intoforce on 5 December 2006, we have established a Disability Equality Delivery Group,whose membership includes representatives of the disability networks with aremit to review our current performance on disability issues, including access,and recommend ways forward to improve disability equality.

Should the member have anyspecific concerns, she is more than welcome to discuss this in more detail withthe SPCB’s equalities manager.

The programme to eliminate mixedsex accommodation was completed in the autumn of 2005. The Executive is not awareof any hospitals which still make routine use of mixed sex general wards.

NHS Quality Improvement Scotland’sclinical governance and risk management reviews will check that local arrangementsto safeguard the privacy and dignity of patients are in place during their 2006-07programme. The programme of visits has not yet commenced, but if evidence is foundthat that the privacy and dignity of patients is being compromised, it will be followedup proactively.

The information requested isnot available centrally.