- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many complaints of a racial nature have been made against it in each year since 1999.
Answer
There is no central record held of complaints of a racial nature made against the Scottish Executive. In the period 1999-2004 there has been only one such recorded complaint made by a Scottish Executive member of staff, in 2002. Figures for 2005 are not available yet.
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-22117 on 20 January 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will measure whether the current barriers to achieving employment for black and minority ethnic groups have been removed by the UK Government's target date of 2013.
Answer
We are establishing a Strategic Group on Ethnic Minorities and the Labour Market, which is seeking to increase the number of people from ethnic minorities, including women from a black or ethnic minority background, in employment. A reduction in the employment gap between ethnic minorities and other groups will be a measure of whether barriers to employment are being removed.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of public sector workers were from a black or minority ethnic background in each year for which figures are available, expressed also as a percentage of the total number of public sector workers.
Answer
This information is not collected centrally.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many claims of bullying or harassment were made against it by its employees in each year since 1999.
Answer
There have been a total of 55 recorded cases of bullying and harassment raised by Scottish Executive employees since 1999. In line with its Dignity at Work policy, the Executive takes all complaints of this nature very seriously. It aims to ensure that all staff have the opportunity to work in an environment where they feel safe and secure and are not subject to unacceptable behaviour.
| 1999 | 8 |
| 2000 | 13 |
| 2001 | 15 |
| 2002 | 6 |
| 2003 | 9 |
| 2004 | 4 |
Figures for 2005 are not yet available.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many black and minority ethnic employees it has, expressed as a percentage of the total number of its employees and broken down by department.
Answer
The number of black and minority ethnic employees, expressed as a percentage of the total number of permanent employees in the Scottish Executive core departments is given in the following table. Declaration of ethnicity by staff in the Scottish Executive is voluntary and 11.5% of staff have not provide information on their ethnic background.
Permanent Staff from an Ethnic Minority at January 2006
| Department | Total |
| Centrally Managed Staff | 0.00% |
| Development Department | * |
| Education Department | 0.11% |
| Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department | 0.20% |
| Environment and Rural Affairs Department | 0.15% |
| Finance and Central Services Department | 0.15% |
| Health Department | * |
| Justice Department | 0.13% |
| Legal and Parliamentary Services | * |
| Office of The Permanent Secretary | 0.11% |
| Grand Total | 1.06% |
Note: *To prevent disclosure of sensitive personal information we do not report on those percentages which would reflect a figurer of less than five.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many of its employees have been recommended for an honour in the (a) Queen’s Birthday Honours List and (b) New Year Honours List in each year since 1999.
Answer
The number of Scottish Executive employees recommended for an honour in the (a) Queen’s Birthday Honours List and (b) New Years Honours List in each year since 1999 are detailed in the following table.
| Honours List | Recommendations |
| New Year 2006 | 6 |
| Birthday 2005 | 7 |
| New Year 2005 | 6 |
| Birthday 2004 | 5 |
| New Year 2004 | 5 |
| Birthday 2003 | 8 |
| New Year 2003 | 8 |
| Birthday 2002 | 6 |
| New Year 2002 | 7 |
| Birthday 2001 | 7 |
| New Year 2001 | 4 |
| Birthday 2000 | 7 |
| New Year 2000 | 10 |
| Birthday 1999 | 5 |
| New Year 1999 | 9 |
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 20 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what research it has commissioned into the economic benefits of greater integration of races into the labour force and the impact that this would have on the economy.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has commissioned the following research in this area:
Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Scotland: a Skills and Aspirations Audit (March 2004) and Minority Ethnic Enterprise in Scotland: a National Scoping Study (June 2005).
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 12 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many respirators with filters are available to local authority and emergency services personnel in the event of a major contamination incident, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
All three Emergency Serviceshave stocks of protective equipment including respirators, breathing equipment orair filter units, as follows:
The Scottish Ambulance Serviceholds 1,000 Chemical Personal Protection Equipment Suits which have, as an integralpart, air filtration units, each of which uses two filters. These suits are intendedto be used by trained ambulance service personnel;
UK-wide the Police Service has5% of its officers trained and equipped (including respirators) in dealing withchemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents;
The Scottish Fire and RescueService do not presently use respirators with filters as they would use full breathingapparatus at all times.
It is not possible to provideinformation on a local authority basis as all decontamination equipment held bythe emergency services is mobile and any response to a decontamination incidentwould be Scotland wide. Dependent on the incident resources could alsobe called upon from England and Wales.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 16 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Cathy Jamieson on 19 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-21502 by Cathy Jamieson on 14 December 2005, whether the term “otherwise”, as defined by section 43(1) of the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1989, would cover a person committed for torture.
Answer
No. The Scottish Prison Servicemay only detain a person for lawful purposes. Torture is prohibited under Article3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
- Asked by: Sandra White, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 09 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 19 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive how many female construction apprenticeships there have been under the modern apprenticeship programme in each year since 2001, expressed also as a percentage of the total number of construction apprenticeships in the same timescale.
Answer
Details about the number of modernapprentices (MAs) broken down by framework and gender since 2001 is an operationalmater for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. The information is not held centrally.
However, Scottish Enterprisehave published MA figures for males and females in the top 12 frameworks since 1998-99,as well as the gender split for each framework by age groups 16 to 24 and over 25sfor the year ending 31 March 2005.
These tables are available onthe Scottish Enterprise website:
www.scottish-enterprise.com/sedotcom_home/training-providers-top/training-providers/performance-and-reports.htm?siblingtoggle=1.
