Chamber and committees

The Scottish Governmentis continuing to take a number of steps to ensure that the mainstreaming of equalityis undertaken systematically across policy areas, these include:

Continuing to implementthe public sector equality duties, as both an employer and in terms of our policyand delivery work (the government’s Race, Disability and Gender Equality Schemesset out our commitments to mainstreaming equality and are available on the Government’swebsite).

Continuing to promotethe government’s Equality Impact Assessment Tool (EQIA), which was launched in December2006. The tool is available to all staff via the intranet, and completed impactassessments will be published on the government’s website. We are conducting EQIAsacross six strands (gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, age and faith)across all relevant policy areas (new policies and reviews of existing policies).We are also providing regular “drop in EQIA surgeries” for staff regarding how tobest take forward EQIA effectively for different policy areas.

Continuing to collect,analyse, disaggregate and disseminate analytical data (social research and statistics);provide focussed analytical support for the EQIA process; providing written andoral briefing across policy areas, and providing guidance and practical supportto policy makers and analysts (for example, in March 2007 the Scottish Governmentpublished A Gender Audit of Statistics, which is available on the Executive’swebsite and we are currently reviewing the guidance provided to bill teams and alsoworking to embed equalities in the business planning process).

Continuing to supportthe work of Equality Proofing the Budget and Policy Advisory Group and the Equalityin Audit and Inspection Working Group.

Continuing to takeforward the Scottish Government’s Diversity Strategy, “Positive about You” whichwas launched in November 2000 and reviewed and re-launched in December 2004. Therevised Strategy has a focus on the mainstreaming of diversity across the organisationand aims to consolidate the substantial progress that has been made so far.

The Scottish Governmentalso published its Departmental Diversity Delivery Plan, in July 2006. Thissupports the wider Cabinet Office initiative, Delivering a Diverse CivilService - a Ten Point Plan. The plan sets out how we plan to change the cultureof our organisation and reap the benefits that having a diverse organisation brings.Its progress is overseen by its Diversity Forum: a group of key diversity policyleads from across UK Government and is chaired by its Diversity Champion. It alsois monitored by the Cabinet Office Diversity Champions’ Network.

Continuing to engagewith our external stakeholders to harness their expertise and support in promotingand embedding mainstreaming equality across policy and practice.

The issues raisedby the equal opportunities commission’s formal investigation into the role andstatus of classroom assistants will be carefully considered, and a responseregarding their recommendations relevant to the Scottish Executive will be madein due course.

The Minister for Communitiesand Sport and I met with Councillor Stephen Purcell of Glasgow City Council on 12 June 2007. Local authorities, and their representative body COSLA,are key partners in meeting Scotland’s wide range of housing needs. The Minister for Communities and Sport and I look forward to meeting the new leaders ofCOSLA once they have been appointed. We would hope to discuss with them, and withlocal authorities, a range of issues concerning housing provision, and in particularmy wish for the Scottish Government to work closely with local partners.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-614 on 18 June 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I have had an introductorymeeting with Julia Bracewell (Chair) and Stewart Harris (Chief Executive) of sportscotlandat which I confirmed that there would be no decisions on the future of sportscotlandwithout a full appreciation of the facts and that the future of sportscotland wouldbe considered within the context of the wider review of public bodies announcedby the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth on 24 May 2007.

Sportscotland is thedistributor of the lottery sports fund in Scotland. If a change of status meantthat sportscotland no longer existed then arrangements would need to be made toconsider which other organisation could best fulfil this role.

However, the ScottishGovernment will continue to ensure the smooth distribution of lottery funding tosport in Scotland.

The issue of any changein the status of sportscotland has no bearing on the building of the National IndoorSports Arena.

The building of theNational Indoor Sports Arena will be undertaken as part of the National RegionalSports Facility Strategy, and will not be affected by any decisions taken in relationto the status of sportscotland.

The new Scottish Governmentis keen to meet a range of housing organisations to discuss future action on housingprovision. No meetings have yet been held with the Chartered Institute of Housing(CIH), but I and the Minister for Communities and Sport hope to meet key stakeholderssuch as CIH soon.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-607 on 18 June 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I referthe member to the answer to question S3W-686 on 15 June 2007. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.