Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-16194 on 23 September 2008. 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.

Responsibility for employing staff or promoting staff in local authorities is a matter for the local authorities themselves. Local authorities are required to take such action as is necessary to meet their obligations under existing equal opportunities legislation.

The most recent complete information is available from the last census, in 2001, when black and minority ethnic people were 2 per cent of the population of Scotland.

A breakdown by local authority area is given in table, Black and minority ethnic groups by Scottish local authority area (percentage of population), available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 46538). The percentage of black and minority ethnic people ranged from 0.4 per cent in Orkney Islands to 5.5 per cent in Glasgow City.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on the percentage of local authority staff comprising of black and minority ethnic employees by department or grade of post. Information from local authorities on the ethnic composition of their total staff was recently requested as part of the Joint Staffing Watch survey. Having received such information from a majority of local authorities, further quality assurance work needs to be undertaken with the statistics before any analysis can be produced. Dependent on the outcome of this work, new analysis on the ethnicity of local authority staff may be published later in the year. Prior to this, individual local authorities may be able to provide further information on the ethnicity of their staff.

The adult english for speakers of other languages (ESOL) strategy for Scotland, launched in March 2007 is for all Scottish residents for whom English is not a first language. This includes migrant workers, asylum seekers and refugees as well as settled minority ethnic communities.

In 2007-08 additional funding of £5 million was made available to colleges and community learning and development partnerships which has provided over 5,000 new ESOL places. Further additional funding of £9 million over the three-year period from 2008-11 is expected to create a further 7,000 places. Providers have therefore extended classes to the aforementioned groups of residents.

This information is available from the latest statistics release, Direct Payments Scotland 2007, which was published on the Internet on 25 September 2007. The document can be found using the following link:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/Publications.

A copy is also available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 43799).

The Scottish Government is committed to radically improving the uptake of self-directed support. I recently convened a roundtable on self-directed support to inform government strategy in this area which will consider practical tools to achieve this aim.

As the Scottish Government announced on 29 April 2008, we will in the near future bring forward legislation to deliver the review''s recommendations on disclosure.

Both recommendations relate to the disclosure of evidence in criminal proceedings by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and the Scottish police.

Recommendation 29 suggested that the police and COPFS should commit to a process of full disclosure in all solemn cases in connection with the implementation of High Court Reform in 2005.

Recommendation 30 suggested that COPFS should consider a pilot for routine disclosure of a summary of the Crown case in summary cases.

I am pleased to confirm that both recommendations have been implemented in full, Recommendation 29 was implemented in November 2004 when the then Lord Advocate Lord Boyd issued a Crown Practice Statement in relation to the disclosure of evidence by the Crown in High Court Cases.

The Crown Practice Statement took full effect from 1 January 2005 and continues to apply to all High Court cases indicted on or after 1 April 2005 and was extended to all solemn cases from 1 September 2005.

In relation to Recommendation 30, a successful pilot was conducted in Dumfries and Galloway in 2007 and the new process was rolled out nationally in September 2007 to support the Summary Justice Reform programme. All summary complaints now include a summary of evidence against the accused.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission had received a total of 32 such requests by 31 March 2008.

The Scottish Information Commissioner has never instructed the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission to disclose information in relation to any case referred to him.