Chamber and committees

The role of the strategic group will be to consider what action should be taken to address the current inequalities that exist for minority ethnic communities in the labour market in Scotland.

Departments are expected to consider the impact of their policies on race equality. Whilst many policy areas have taken account of the need to address issues of race equality, we have been developing more formalised mechanisms to undertake and record impact assessments. One formal race equality impact assessment has been undertaken on the Smart Successful Scotland Strategy and processes have recently been put in place which will ensure Executive policies are screened in a more systematic way for their impact or likely impact on the promotion of race equality.

The Executive’s new Race Equality Scheme will be published at the end of November 2005 and will set out progress in departments on race equality, and the arrangements in place around consultation, impact assessment, monitoring and publishing.

The short-term outcome of the strategic group will be to produce an action plan to address the current inequalities that exist for minority ethnic communities in the labour market in Scotland. This action plan will identify what work needs to be taken forward to achieve the following long-term outcomes:

Reduction of the minority ethnic employment gap.

Elimination of the “ethnic penalty”.

Reduction in occupational segregation.

Increased access to finance and business support services for minority ethnic entrepreneurs.

Economic integration of new migrants.

Working towards better inclusion of minority ethnic employees at every level of the workforce.

Approximately 265 devolved bodies are subject to a specific duty to publish a race equality scheme or policy. The Executive reviews the position annually in consultation with the Commission for Racial Equality.

Almost 300 public bodies and approximately 1,500 community councils are subject to the general duty to promote race equality, and employment monitoring duties if they employ staff. Again, this list is kept under review.

The Race, Religion and Refugee Integration Team within the Development Department’s Equality Unit is currently developing the framework for the strategic group, in conjunction with officials from the Development, Enterprise and Lifelong Learning and Education Departments, Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Commission for Racial Equality as well as other external organisations.

No single measurement can monitor racism but we can begin to gain an overall picture from a range of indicators, including:

Dialogue with the experiences of minority ethnic communities.

The Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, and other surveys which seek people’s views on discrimination, such as the pre- and post-evaluations of the One Scotland Many Cultures campaign.

Monitoring the number of racist incidents reported to police forces (although an increase in the number recorded may not necessarily be attributable to an increase in incidents occurring, but more of a consequence of improved reporting procedures).

Monitoring the educational attainment of minority ethnic pupils.

Monitoring public authorities’ compliance with the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

We are continually seeking to improve the information and monitoring available.

Costs incurred by Scottish Executive ministers and officials on official business abroad and in the UK are claimed in accordance with Scottish Executive rules. Local checking, where appropriate and central selective sample checking of claims takes place prior to claims being reimbursed. As part of their general coverage, Scottish Executive Audit Services periodically review the adequacy and application of the central controls relating to the reimbursement of the Scottish Executive travel and subsistence expenses.

The Scottish Executive is committed to introducing a national language strategy within the lifetime of this Parliament.

The responsibility for the preparation and oversight of the National Languages Strategy resides with the Tourism, Culture and Sport Group of the Scottish Executive Education Department. Officials within this group are also drawing on the expertise of officials with other language interests elsewhere in the Executive.

There are currently no plans to introduce any statutory duty on non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) to have an equalities policy. Consultation is currently under way on best value in public services, which includes equal opportunities. NDPBs already have a statutory duty to promote race equality which will extend to disability equality in 2006 and is expected to extend to gender equality in the near future.