Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Scottish Executive does not hold information on the number of employment tribunal cases relating to the agencies of its main bargaining unit on a central database prior to January 2005 and it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Information relating to agencies out with the main bargaining unit and other non-departmental public bodies is a matter for them. However, the Central Office of the Employment Tribunals in Scotland, The Eagle Building, 215 Bothwell Street, Glasgow, holds a public record of all Employment Tribunal cases brought in Scotland.

I refer Ms White to the answer given to S2W-16562 on 23 May 2005. 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.

The Scottish Executive does not currently hold information centrally about the average working hours of staff. Line managers are responsible for the monitoring and management of the working hours of their staff.

This is not information that has been requested from, or provided by, the Home Office.

The Equality Unit routinely meets with a wide variety of stakeholder organisations as well as public and private sector organisations. This is part of our constant effort to promote equal opportunities in Scotland and the Executive welcomes contact from all interested parties. There has been no attempt to record the number of meetings held since the Equality Unit was set up in 1999.

In addition, the Equality Unit has run a number of stakeholder forums.  Recent forums facilitated by the unit are:

The Equality and Human Rights Reference Group

The Disability Working Group

The Race Equality Advisory Forum

The Older People’s Consultative Forum

The British Sign Language and Linguistic Access Working Group

The Scottish Women’s Convention

The Scottish Refugee Integration Forum

The Core Liaison Group (religion and belief).

The Equality Unit also meets quarterly with national lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups to discuss strategic issues.

All of these forums have a wide variety of stakeholder members. Each stakeholder member will also discuss the issues with their members. Other organisations or individuals may be invited to attend these forums where necessary.

Equality Unit staff also frequently attend external meetings, working groups and conferences.

The Equality Unit work listed here represents only a small part of the stakeholder engagement carried out by the Scottish Executive.

I refer the member to the answer given to the answer  to question S2W-16336 on 17 May 2005. 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.

The Equality Unit and Older People's Unit routinely meet with a wide variety of age related organisations and stakeholders. There has been no attempt to record the number of meetings held since the Equality Unit was set up in 1999.

The Older People's Unit, which is now part of the Equality Unit, has established and facilitated meetings of the Older People's Consultative Forum, which represents a diverse range of older people's interests. Membership is drawn from a wide range of groups, and meetings are chaired by the appropriate minister, currently the Minister for Communities. There have been eleven meetings between February 2002 and February 2005.

Current membership of the Forum:

Scottish Pensioners Forum

Scottish Pensions Association

West of Scotland Seniors Forum

Black and Minority Ethnic Elders Group

Scottish Older People's Advisory Group

STUC

COSLA Spokesperson for Older People

Alzheimer's Scotland

Age Concern Scotland

Help the Aged.

Observers also attend from COSLA and the Scottish Parliament's Cross Party Group on Older People, Age and Ageing. Other organisations or individuals may be invited to attend the Forum where necessary.

Since the publication of the previous Equality Annual Report in 2003 the Scottish Executive has reported on its activities to develop the equality strategy in a number of different documents. These have taken the place of a full annual report and allow much better reporting of the work of the Equality Unit. These reports are:

European Year of Disabled People 2003 Evaluation Report

Report of the Strategic Group on Women

Scottish Refugee Integration Forum Progress Report

Race Equality Advisory Forum Progress Audit

Race Equality Strategy Annual Report

Delivering for Scotland’s Gypsy/Travellers.

In addition, there are a number of areas of work which we have not yet reported on. We will report on Equality Unit work in these areas by September 2005.

The most recent Social Inclusion Research Bulletin was published on 31 March 2005 on the Scottish Executive website. It can be found at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/03/3183430/34329.

The information requested for staff working in ministerial private offices is provided in the following table. The figures include the staff who provide support for the special advisers but do not include the special advisers themselves as they are not eligible to claim overtime payments. There are currently 67 staff who work in ministerial private offices.

Year	£000
1999-2000	191
2000-01	278
2001-02	332
2002-03	345
2003-04	320
2004-05	370

 

Any arrangements for staff to take time off in lieu are made locally with the line manager of each office and this information is not held centrally.