The Scottish Government is committed to improving female representation on public boards. Later this year, we will introduce the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Bill, a key commitment of our 2016-17 Programme for Government: A Plan for Scotland. The draft Bill sets a gender representation objective for non-executive members of public boards, requiring certain action to be taken in the appointing of non-executive members towards the achievement of the objective. A consultation on the draft Bill closed on 17 March 2017 and responses will be independently analysed to inform and support the development of the Bill.

The Bill builds on the positive progress that has already been made to improve the diversity of ministerial appointments through a transformational programme of improvement work led by the Scottish Government’s Public Appointments Team and the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life. Activities include: reaching out to potential candidates in new and creative ways; promoting succession planning by public bodies with a view to identifying and developing potential candidates; challenging the public perceptions of ‘typical’ public appointees; simplifying the application process and testing different interview styles; using alternative assessment methods to allow candidates to demonstrate their skills, and developing a new partnership approach with the Commissioner for Ethical Standards to enhance creativity and expertise.

The information requested is given in the table entitled “Business Pledge – Statistical overview – February 2017”, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib number 57653).

Glasgow Prestwick Airport’s Annual Accounts for 2015-16 are available on their website. These provide a breakdown on revenue streams, including passenger and cargo. I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-05715 on 10 January 2017. 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. My previous response provided the gross revenue generated from all military flights for 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16. Military is accounted for under “other aviation” in the following table.

* Please note that this accounting period runs from 22 November 2013 to 31 March 2015 in line with Annual Accounts produced following the Scottish Government taking ownership of the airport.

Figures for 2016-17 are not yet available.

There are no plans to add additional elements to the Scottish Business Pledge at this time. Formal evaluation of the Business Pledge, scheduled for 2017, will provide further evidence of company behaviours.

There are already various sources of published official statistics by occupation, industry and work-pattern for Scotland, published by the Scottish Government and the Office for Nationals Statistics via www.nomisweb.co.uk. Examples of these are as follows:

Scottish Government Publications

Relevant Scottish Government published statistical tables, relating to employment by occupation, industry and work pattern in Scotland are listed below

Regional Employment patterns in Scotland- Local Authority Tables

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/Local-Authority-Tables

Table 1.23: Proportion and level of people in employment (aged 16+) by occupational group (SOC 2010) and gender, Scotland, 2004-2015

Table 1.24: Proportion and level of people in employment (aged 16+) by occupational group (SOC 2010) and local authority, Scotland, 2004-2015

These tables will be updated with 2016 data in May 2017

Gender pay gap by occupation

http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/Earnings

Table 2.7: Gender Pay Gap – Median Full-Time Hourly Earnings by Occupation (SOC) 2011-2016

This table will be updated for 2017 in October 2017

Growth Sector Statistics

Note also that the Scottish Government publishes a wide range of economic and business statistics, including total employment, for the growth sectors at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Business/Publications/GrowthSectors

Office for National Statistics Publications

Official estimates of employment by Occupation for Scotland for Ethnic Group by occupation of employment; Occupation major group of employment; Occupation sub-major group of employment are available at:

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk

Data on levels, distribution and make-up of earnings and hours worked for employees in Scotland, by gender and full-time/part-time status in all occupations (according to SOC codes) are also published by the Office for National Statistics at:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/regionbyoccupation2digitsocashetable3

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/regionbyoccupation4digitsoc2010ashetable15

The Scottish Government holds official sources of labour Market Statistics including both; the Annual Population Survey and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data sets. We monitor the relevance of Labour Market statistical outputs for Scotland against customer needs through various mechanisms including engagement with external stakeholder through SCOTSTAT http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/scotstat and we will develop and produce new statistical outputs and analysis where possible and required.

The Scottish Government already publishes gender pay gap by age and other employment related characteristics on the Scottish Government web site at: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Labour-Market/Earnings/ASHE-SGTables.

The official source for pay gap information is the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), Office for National Statistics, which is the most detailed and comprehensive source of earnings information. ASHE is based on a 1% sample of employee jobs, drawn from HM Revenue and Customs Pay as you Earn (PAYE) records.

It is possible from this data source to provide estimates of earnings and gender pay gap by age and characteristics of employment including industry, occupation and type of contract etc. Information on the gender pay gap in Scotland, from the ASHE, for these characteristics, is published on our web site at the link above. However other than age and gender the ASHE data set does not include any other information on personal characteristics, therefore further earnings breakdowns are not possible by groupings such as ethnicity or nationality.

The Scottish Government monitors the relevance of Labour Market Statistical outputs against customer needs through various mechanisms including engagement with external stakeholder through SCOTSTAT http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/scotstat and we will produce and develop new statistical outputs where possible in response to customer need.

I shall reply to the member as soon as possible.

Companies provide information to support their Scottish Business Pledge, relating to each of the nine elements. That is used as a basis for decisions about whether or not to endorse that Pledge proposal.

Companies also agree to notify the Scottish Government of any relevant changes of circumstances.

Further to the response to S5W-03466 on 7 November 2016, formal evaluation of the Business Pledge, scheduled for 2017, will provide further evidence of company behaviours.

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

The UK Spaceport programme is a reserved matter for the UK Government. A Draft Spaceflight Bill was published on 21 February 2017. This sets out how the UK Government plans to regulate launch-to-orbit and sub-orbital spaceflight activities from UK spaceports. This Bill provides for the creation of a regulatory framework to enable commercial spaceflight activities to be carried out from spaceports in the United Kingdom.

Now that the UK Government has published the Draft Spaceflight Bill, we would encourage them to ensure all interested parties are given a clear understanding of the infrastructure requirements involved, to allow interested parties to make progress in developing viable business models.

Since purchasing the airport in November 2013, the Scottish Government and Glasgow Prestwick Airport have received and considered a number of approaches from parties expressing an interest in purchasing or investing in the business. Whilst I welcome such expressions of interest, and where they have been received, they have been commercially sensitive and it would not be appropriate for the Scottish Government to comment on these.