Chamber and committees

The recruitment procedures of the Scottish Executive are subject to audit by the Internal Audit Unit as part of the rolling programme of internal audits. An audit was carried out by the Internal Audit Unit in January 2002.

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) is reserved to the UK Parliament. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) is working to ensure that service providers and employers, including local authorities, are informed of the current requirements and are prepared in good time for the new duties coming into force in 2004. A UK Government campaign for 2002-03 is currently being formulated. The Scottish Executive is looking to work with the DWP and the Disability Rights Commission in Scotland in taking this and future campaigns forward.Previous awareness-raising activity has included:In 1998, a mailshot to service providers alerting them to the consultation on the code of practice on rights of access. An extensive national press and radio advertising campaign, advising service providers to call the DDA Helpline to find out more, complemented the mailshot.In June 1999 the "See the Person" campaign aimed to challenge stereotyping and raise awareness of rights and responsibilities under the DDA. It included TV and radio advertising, posters, articles and endorsements by celebrities."What have you got to offer?" launched in autumn 2000, was specifically aimed at small and medium businesses who provide goods and services to the public, focussing on practical advice and guidance.The latest campaign "Open to Change" which ran from January to March this year in the national, regional and trade press, was aimed at service providers and illustrated the types of changes they can make to improve the delivery of their goods and services to disabled people. The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) also published a new code of practice in February this year, covering the 2004 accessibility duties. The code is accompanied by a series of guides for small businesses. The DRC will take the lead in ensuring that the duties of the DDA are complied with.

An extra £9 million will be available in 2003-04 in Revenue Support Grant to assist local authorities in preparing and implementing their accessibility strategies under the Education (Disability Strategies and Pupils' Educational Records) Act 2002. In addition, local authorities can use general revenue grant and other sources of funding to ensure their schools and nursery schools review their policies and make adjustments to ensure so that they comply with the new duties under Part IV of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Other funding sources include:

• Inclusion Programme funding under the National Priorities Action Fund - £20 million is available in both 2002-03 and 2003-04 (up from £14.3 million in 2001-02);

SEN Specific Grant for In-Service Training - £7.8 million is available in both 2002-03 and 2003-04 (up from £5.4 million in 2001-02).

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-28019.

The results of the Civil Service Commissioners last audits of the Scottish Administration's recruitment practices are summarised in the table.

Breaches	Recommendations	Observations
Scottish Executive1 - March 1999
None	The audit resulted in a number of recommendations were made concerning updating of recruitment guidance; publication of recruitment data, and tightening of procedures in relation to late applications, filing of campaign statistics, training of board chairs, setting and application of sift criteria, and recording of comments on interview assessment sheets. All have been adopted.	None
Scottish Prison Service - September 2001
None	Recommendations were made concerning the retention of adverts and job descriptions on recruitment files. All have been adopted.	None
Scottish Courts Service - July 1999
None	Recommendations were made concerning recording details of sift participants; setting review dates for casual contracts; clarification of rules regarding applicants with convictions; establishing regular independent audits; issuing of published data to the commissioners; establishing a process for re-instatement/re-employment applications; including a disability section in the recruitment manual; improving board reports, and separation of medical details from application forms. All have been adopted.	SCS were commended on their recruitment manual, procedure for handling New Deal applicants and running of practice interview boards.
Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service - June 2000
None	It was recommended that a more detailed checklist be introduced for checking of records. This recommendation was adopted.	Observations were made that COPFS consider conducting periodic spot checks of recruitment at regional offices and consider offering refresher courses to staff on selection panels.
Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency - September 2001
One breach was notified in relation to the lack of an independent audit check of recruitment systems. This has now been rectified with the introduction of a reciprocal arrangement with Fisheries Research Services.	Recommendations were made concerning issuing published data to the Commissioners; recording and monitoring of exceptions; strengthening procedures to ensure records are properly kept; ensuring sifting criteria are established at the outset and consistently applied; recording details of sifts; improving assessment methods; ensuring separation of health and equal opportunities data from application forms, and compilation of statistics. All recommendations have been adopted.	SFPA were commended on the extent of their published data.
Fisheries Research Service - March 2001
One breach was noted in relation to the lack of an independent audit check of recruitment systems. This has now been rectified with the introduction of a reciprocal arrangement with Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency.	Recommendations were made concerning improvements to the publication of recruitment data; monitoring of exceptions, and completion of sift and assessment sheets. All recommendations were adopted.	Observations were made commending the clarity of documentation and the state of campaign records and suggesting the provision of guidance to assessors on the scoring of candidates.
Historic Scotland - August 2001
None	Recommendations were made concerning improvement of the system of internal checks; submission of published data to commissioners, monitoring of Job Centre's compliance with the Recruitment Code; placement of advertisements on campaign files; establishment of sift criteria at outset and consistent application throughout; recording of sift details; improvement of assessment procedures; consistency of board reports; placement of statistics on files, and review of guidance to reflect the Recruitment Code. All were adopted.	None
Scottish Agricultural Science Agency - July 2000
None	Recommendations were made concerning procedures for internal checks of recruitment; publication of recruitment data; recording of trained interviewers; strengthening of procedures concerning the use of job centres, and improving procedures relating to record keeping and procedural notes. All were adopted.	None

Notes:1. At the time of this audit the Scottish Executive administered recruitment for Scottish Executive core departments, General Register Office for Scotland, National Archives of Scotland, Student Awards Agency for Scotland and the Scottish Public Pensions Agency.

The Disability Rights Commission has sent copies of its Code of Practice (Schools) to all schools and local authorities in Scotland. Local authorities and schools will be able to use this code to ensure that they understand and meet their new duties under Part IV of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

The information requested is not held centrally. The latest School Census, carried out in September 2001, showed that the pupil:computer ratio was 11:1 in primary schools and 5:1 in secondary schools. The targets for 2002 are 7.5:1 in primary schools and 5:1 in secondary schools. The deployment of these computers within schools is a matter for local decision.

The information requested is not held centrally. The latest School Census, carried out in September 2001, showed that the pupil:computer ratio was 11:1 in primary schools and 5:1 in secondary schools. The targets for 2002 are 7.5:1 in primary schools and 5:1 in secondary schools. Schools and authorities decide how these should be deployed within the school.

In addition to a number of major projects under construction in May 1999, building has begun on a further 11 new hospital developments in NHSScotland since the beginning of May 1999. Of these, four have been funded publicly and seven through PPP/PFI. Details of these projects are given in the following table:

Project Name	Construction Start Date	Capital Value(£ million)	Funding Route
Balivanich Hospital, Benbecula	May 1999	7.2	Public
New Craigs Psychiatry Unit, Inverness	May 1999	16.5	PPP/PFI
Geriatric Assessment Facility, Larkfield, Greenock	July 1999	10.0	PPP/PFI
Care of Elderly Services at Tippethill Hospital, West Lothian	July 1999	2.3	PPP/PFI
Geriatric Medicine and Assessment Facility, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow	September 1999	11.0	PPP/PFI
Carseview Psychiatric Services, Dundee	September 1999	10.0	PPP/PFI
Balfour Hospital, Orkney, Phase II	October 1999	5.0	Public
Day Surgery and Maternity Unit, Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary	May 2000	10.0	PPP/PFI
New Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital	August 2001	24.6	Public
Leith Community Treatment Centre, Edinburgh	August 2002	8.5	Public
North East Edinburgh Continuing Care (Findlay House)	August 2002	4.0	PPP/PFI

On 15 May 2002, three judges of the Court of Criminal Appeal referred an appeal (McKinnon, McKay and Norwood v Her Majesty's Advocate) to a Bench of five judges with a view to clarifying an aspect of the law of concert, which applies to situations where a number of persons are accused of acting together to commit a crime. This is a normal part of judicial process to resolve an unclear area of law.The decision of the five judges would represent an authoritative statement of the law on the point, and would be binding on all courts of criminal jurisdiction in Scotland. No date has yet been set for the hearing before five judges.