Chamber and committees

Scottish Government research in 2016 into the drivers of the gender pay gap showed that the gap in the finance sector was mainly due to women not progressing to senior positions as quickly as their male counterparts or to roles more likely to attract bonus payments. This is unacceptable.

To help employers we are providing £205,000 to Close the Gap for July 2017- June 18 to challenge and change employment practices and workplace cultures.

As announced in the Child Poverty Action Plan we are establishing a Gender Pay Gap Working Group that includes expert stakeholders such as Close the Gap, Engender and STUC. The working group, which I will chair, will identify specific actions to reduce gender pay gaps across sectors as a key element of the Scottish Government’s inclusive growth vision.

In September 2017 the Scottish Government awarded £48,500 to Women Returners Ltd to deliver the Returners to Financial Services Scotland Programme. This will assist professionally qualified women who have had a career break to return to work in the finance sector.

The Scottish Government will continue to encourage all employers to tackle gender inequalities. That is why we promote Close the Gap’s free online toolkit to assist employers to report their gender pay gap to comply with the regulations. We are also providing £159,000 for 2018-19 to Family Friendly Working Scotland Partnership to support and promote development of family friendly workplaces.

The Scottish Government works closely with a range of key partners to engage with and consult LGBTI people.

In February 2017, I announced three year funding under the Equality Budget. As part of this, grant funding was announced for a range of organisations working to promote LGBTI equality in Scotland, including work to address discrimination and tackle hate crime. Funding was announced for three years, with the first funding year (running from 1 July 2017 – 30 June 2018) confirmed and the next two (July 2018 – June 2019 and July 2019 – end June 2020) on an indicative basis. The amounts for
‎ 2018-19 have now also been confirmed and the funding for 2017-18 and 2018-19 are set out as follows.

2017-18 funding

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-16407 on 16 May 2018. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Local authorities operate independently of central government and are accountable to their electorates for the services they provide. Local authorities have broad powers under section 69 of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and section 20 of the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 to make reasonable charges for services provided. Decisions on how much to charge for local services are for local authorities, not for the Scottish Government, to take.

Ministers and Scottish Government Officials regularly meet with companies across the financial services sector including some of those listed. All ministerial engagements are published proactively at https://beta.gov.scot/search/?q=ministerial+engagements .

These discussions cover a range of issues relating to the sector and its workforce. For example, in a recent conversation with Aberdeen Standard Investments I discussed gender inequality in the sector and measures they were taking to address this. The First Minister will take part in their annual Gender Summit in July.

In an interview with the BBC broadcast on 1 May 2018, Lord Carloway referred to vulnerable witnesses, including rape complainers, not necessarily having to go to court to give evidence as “the ultimate objective”.

The Scottish Government is supportive of a greater use of pre-recorded evidence for vulnerable witnesses. We have committed to introducing primary legislation to add to recent improvements to strengthen and improve the rights and experiences of victims and witnesses and remove any legislative barriers to enable the greater use of pre-recorded evidence. The Bill will be introduced to Parliament before the end of this session.

The Scottish Government is in regular contact with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) regarding the use of pre-recorded evidence in general and in particular have been engaging with them and other criminal justice stakeholders on the development of primary legislation mentioned in S5W-16360 on 16 May 2018. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

In addition, Scottish Government has had discussions with COPFS (and also with Police Scotland and Rape Crisis Scotland) to explore a pilot for recording a complainer's initial statement to the police.

The Scottish Government welcomes any constructive proposals from oppositions members, including on workforce planning. However, as yet, the Scottish Government has not been approached by the Scottish Labour Party’s Health and Social Care Workforce Commission.

The Scottish Government has produced three comprehensive workforce plans - which involved the input of stakeholders.

The Scottish Government continues to support women to breastfeed as the normal nutrition for babies. That is why we have been working to improve the quality of support through a number of initiatives, including our commitment in the Programme for Government 2017 “to increase resources for breastfeeding to support mothers, particularly in the days immediately following birth, and supporting the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Framework”.

The Scottish Government’s Maternal and Infant Nutrition Framework (2011) outlines the measures that should be taken by all organisations working with families to ensure that every parent is supported to give their baby the very best nutritional start in life and ask NHS Boards to report annually on progress.

It is for each NHS Board to plan services to meet the needs of its population. Most health boards have infant feeding advisors and/or peer support coordinators who will provide support to mothers, regardless of the choices the mothers make in how they feed their infants.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting breastfeeding by new mothers through a range of activities which include:

• The publication of the Improving Maternal and Infant Nutrition: A Framework for Action (2011). As part of the implementation of the Framework the Scottish Government appointed a National Maternal and Infant Nutrition Co-ordinator to coordinate the breastfeeding improvement activity and to link with other partners across Scotland and the rest of the UK.
• The Scottish Government launched a replacement of the previous Feedgood factor website in June 2016. http://www.feedgood.scot
• The Scottish Government also provides funding to support the National Breastfeeding Helpline. http://www.nationalbreastfeedinghelpline.org.uk/ and other third sector organisations such as the NCT, to offer peer support in the community
• The Scottish Government supported the development of the “Off to a Good Start” booklet http://www.healthscotland.com/documents/120.aspx published by NHS Health Scotland and provided to all new mothers early in their pregnancy.

These activities are monitored through regular reporting with each organisation as well as national statistics. We also recently commissioned a National Maternal and Infant Nutrition Survey and this will be used to identify key areas to focus activity and drive improvement.