Chamber and committees

Currently, analysis is carried out for specific recruitment campaigns rather than for recruitment to all positions in the Scottish Government. For example, an analysis of ethnicity was completed for the recent external B Band recruitment campaign which attracted 4444 applications. This analysis indicates that ethnic minority applicants had a 3.1% chance of being offered a place and white candidates had a 3.7% chance. The Scottish Government is committed to improving the diversity of the Scottish Government workforce as part of the Public Sector Equality Duty regulations. Our current systems only provide a snapshot of the recruitment process and not a picture of the full hiring process. Further improvements to the reporting and analysis of recruitment information into the Scottish Government will be made as part of the Equality Outcome and Mainstreaming Report, which will be published in April 2019.

Within our Tackling Prejudice and Building Connected Communities Action Plan we committed to develop a public awareness campaign and in October 2017 we ran our ‘Hate Has No Home in Scotland’ campaign. The campaign aimed to raise awareness of what hate crime is and encourage both victims and witnesses to report it.

Building on the success of this campaign we will launch a further campaign later this year which will aim to encourage witnesses of hate crime to report, and provide reassurance that the police will take action.

The Scottish Government will fund the creation and implementation of refreshed Mental Health and Suicide Prevention training by May 2019 and will support delivery across local authorities. To date, 18 local authorities have received this Scottish Mental Health First Aid Training. By the end of the academic year 2019/20 all of the remaining local authorities will be offered the training which will complement the range of mental health strategies that are already in place within schools and local authorities.

As indicated in the answer to question S5W-18333 on 5 September 2018, detail on this will be considered by the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group, which will make recommendations to Ministers on detail. 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 .

Decisions on the most appropriate use of the £3million funding over the course of this Parliament to support the Action Plan, including the development of refreshed mental health and suicide prevention training, will be informed by the deliberations and recommendations of the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group.

The following table provides the information requested, with narrative included where appropriate:

As stated in the new Suicide Prevention Action Plan, the training is to be developed by May 2019. Detail on this, including categories and groups of NHS staff who should be prioritised for the training, will be considered by the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group, which will make recommendations to Ministers on detail. In the meantime, a range of existing training on suicide prevention is already available to NHS Boards.

The National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group will make recommendations to Ministers on the most appropriate use of the £1m annual investment in suicide prevention in order to support the Actions in the Action Plan.

The National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group will make recommendations to Ministers on the most appropriate use of the £1m annual investment in suicide prevention in order to support the Actions in the Action Plan.

HIV Scotland has submitted a business case which is still under consideration. The interim funding provided to HIV Scotland has been extended to cover this period.