Chamber and committees

Neither Serco NorthLink or Caledonian MacBrayne, as employers, hold records of how many employees are members of trade unions. The reason for that is that the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992 provides protection to employees to ensure that they do not suffer a detriment from either being a member of a trade union or not.

The Scottish Government does not collect or hold details of information relating to trade union membership including ferry operators.

As explained in the Policy Memorandum to the Railway Policing (Scotland) Act 2017, passage of that primary legislation by the Scottish Parliament now enables a substantial programme of work with key partners to deliver integration in practice. Key legislative elements of the overall programme were summarised in the Annex to the Policy memorandum, and include legislative provisions in the UK Parliament to underpin railway policing on cross-border services and the transition of officers and staff from the BTP in Scotland into Police Scotland.

The Scottish Government is working towards making a further report to the Parliament later this month.

CalMac Ferries Ltd recognises four trade unions for collective bargaining purposes, Nautilus International, National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT), Unite and Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA). Serco Northlink Ferries recognises Nautilus International and the RMT for the purpose of collective bargaining for seafarers.

Both companies regularly engage with the trade unions as necessary.

Neither employer holds records of how many employees are members of trade unions in line with the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992 which provides protection to employees to ensure that they do not suffer discrimination from either being in a union or not.

Therefore, the Scottish Government does not hold details of information relating to trade union membership in ferry companies.

The member may wish to contact the companies directly to clarify their position regarding their engagement with the trade unions.

The Scottish Government recognises the benefits to employees and to organisations of strong, effective and modern industrial relations. A progressive approach to industrial relations and to trade unionism is at the heart of a fairer, more successful society and trade union recognition in the workplace, including in the ferry industry, improves communication and the ability of employees to influence and negotiate.

Our approach is to promote strong trade unions to support the delivery of our economic ambitions and to develop relationships with employers based on co-operation and partnership working, as demonstrated through Working Together and the establishment of the Fair Work Convention and our endorsement of their of the Convention’s Fair Work Framework.

The Business Pledge is a shared mission between Government and business, with the goal of boosting productivity, competitiveness, employment, fair work and workforce engagement and development. There are nine elements to the Pledge, one of which is workforce engagement. There are many ways to engage a workforce, including working closely with trade unions.

Trade union agreements are agreed directly between the employer (ie the ferry operator) and the unions and the Scottish Government / Transport Scotland has no involvement in these discussions.

Our ambition is to create cohesive, supportive and resilience communities where hate crime and prejudice is reduced and community cohesion is strengthened. In June, the Scottish Government set out a range of steps to tackle hate crime and prejudice in our action plan Tackling Prejudice and Building Connected Communities. This is available at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/06/1336.

Information on current funded projects to tackle sectarianism in Scotland is available athttps://beta.gov.scot/news/500-000-for-anti-sectarianism-projects/. Wren and Greyhound carried out an evaluation of the community based projects between 2012 and 2016, and a summary of this report is available at http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0052/00522251.pdf. Alongside regular statistical publications on hate crime, we use measurements such as the Scottish Social Attitudes survey to understand how attitudes to different groups have changed.

The Minister for Community Safety expects to meet with representatives of the Catholic Church following the summer recess to discuss these issues.

The position on when an application cannot be made under section 268 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 is set out in the legislation. In addition to the situation where the compulsory treatment order that authorises the patient’s detention in hospital has not been extended, an application may not be made during the period of 6 months beginning with the making of the compulsion order that authorises the patient’s detention in hospital; or before the expiry of the period of 6 months beginning with the making of (i) the hospital direction; or (ii) the transfer for treatment direction, that authorises the patient’s detention in hospital. In all cases the period of 6 months is calculated from the date on which the relevant order is made. At the making of a further order, the Tribunal or court will have had an opportunity to consider and specify where the patient should be detained.

The planning and provision of healthcare services is primarily for NHS Boards, in line with national standards, policies and frameworks. NHS Lanarkshire has confirmed that these operational changes will not change the current level of local service provision. The location of some wards are changing in order to ensure that local clinical environments continue to provide high quality, safe and sustainable services.

In terms of local stakeholder engagement, the Board issued a detailed briefing to all local MPs/MSPs on 5 July, 2017. NHS Lanarkshire have assured us that are engaging with all patients and their families; explaining the changes, as well as the arrangements for any patient who may be transferred. NHS Lanarkshire wrote to staff about the changes on 14 June. Local meetings supported by Human Resources and staff-side representation took place for staff on both the Wishaw and Monklands sites on 22 June and 26 June, respectively. We have been assured that there will be no reduction in staff numbers on these wards as a result of the changes. The Health Board has provided assurances that local stakeholders and their representatives will continue to be fully engaged as these operational changes are progressed.

The information requested is provided in the following table. Since the introduction of the treatment time guarantee on 1 October 2012 a total of 15,108 orthopaedic patients have received elective inpatient or day case treatment within the 12 weeks treatment time guarantee in NHS Lanarkshire and 2,926 patients had waited longer than the guarantee.

I announced on 30 May that £50 million pounds was being made available to NHSScotland to help improve performance and reduce waiting times for patients. NHS Lanarkshire will receive up to £6.2 million from the additional funding and are currently agreeing plans to improve their waiting time performance between now and March 2018.

The Scottish Government has also committed £200 million to expand the Golden Jubilee National Hospital and to create five new elective centres to meet future changing demographics over the next 10-15 years. These centres will carry out orthopaedic procedures such as hip and knee joint replacement operations and will allow people to be seen more quickly for planned surgery. This will also help the NHS to meet increasing demand from a growing elderly population, taking pressure off unplanned and emergency treatment.

The Scottish Government believes that there is no excuse for any form of hate crime. Scotland is a diverse multi-cultural society and this diversity is our strength.

This Government is clear that there is absolutely no place for bigotry and prejudice in 21st century Scotland and it will not be tolerated. Later this year, we will launch a public campaign to raise awareness within wider society of the impacts of hate crime.

We remain committed to tackling all forms of prejudice and discrimination, including sectarianism. Over the last 6 years we have invested £13 million (to March 2018) to tackle sectarianism including £9.8 million directly invested in community based projects across Scotland, many of which have a strong focus on education.