Chamber and committees

There is currently no central list of contracts and the conditions they contain that would enable us to provide this information. However, framework agreements awarded by the Central Government Centre of Procurement Expertise, which is part of the Scottish Government''s Procurement Directorate, usually include a clause requiring that contractors comply with legislation, including the national minimum wage and, where appropriate, TUPE. These frameworks can be used by the core Scottish Government, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies.

The Small Business Bonus Scheme was uplifted and expanded from 1 April 2010 to include an estimated 3,600 additional properties.

We plan to evaluate the scheme once the impact of those changes have taken effect.

There are no Scottish Government plans to produce a national report based around any single SOA indicator.

The Scottish Government''s current preferred indicator of child poverty at a local level is the percentage of children in each Local Authority that live in households dependent on out of work benefits OR Child Tax Credit more than the family element which is calculated from HM Revenue and Customs data.

It is available for all local authorities in Scotland and the rest of the UK. It is published on the HMRC website as well as being available to download on the government income and poverty statistics website and the Scottish Neighborhood Statistics website at http://www.sns.gov.uk/, a site that is a popular source of data for local authority single outcome agreements.

I will keep the Parliament informed of the outcomes of discussions with DWP Ministers.

The Scottish Government aim to issue a draft strategy for consultation in autumn 2010.

We have yet to confirm what the agenda of the meeting will be.

A date has not yet been set for the meeting between the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

The timing of proposed changes to UK tax and benefits legislation is a reserved matter and we will continue to press the UK Government to recognise the issues for Scottish kinship carers.

Details of Income Tax exemptions and Income Tax relief for kinship carers can be found on the HMRC website at:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2010/bn37.pdf.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pbr2009/pbrn22.pdf.

Details of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit disregard for kinship carers can be found on the DWP website at:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.dwp.gov.uk/newsroom/press-releases/2010/march-2010/dwp059-10-250310.shtml/.

A previously planned meeting due to take place in mid June has been postponed in order that the Scottish Government and COSLA can work together over the summer. We will be engaging further with stakeholders including kinship carers as the work progresses.

We welcome the report Has Devolution Delivered for Women? and anything which raises the importance of women''s representation in politics.

Scottish Government is supportive of increasing women''s involvement in politics at all levels. We fund organisations, such as the Scottish Women''s Convention and Engender, to encourage and empower a diverse range of women to become involved in the decision-making that impacts on their lives. They also work towards equal representation of women in government and public life.

Ministers regularly promote the fact that, since devolution with increased numbers of women in the Scottish Parliament, issues of particular concern to women, such as violence against women, have risen in profile. They also warn against complacency because gains can be lost.

Political parties have themselves the ability to take steps to increase women''s representation in elected bodies such as the Scottish Parliament and local councils. For example, the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 ensures that single sex shortlists are permissible, and section 106 of the Equality Act 2010 will, when commenced, allow the UK Government to require political parties to publish information on the diversity of their candidates at Scottish Parliament elections.

Political parties will have different approaches to the representation of women and may not all agree with taking specific measures to address under-representation. However, the current provision enables action to be taken, but does not require it of any political party.