Scotland 'still riven by inequalities'

SCOTLAND is still gripped by "old inequalities" with the pay gap between men and women persisting and higher school exclusion rates in poorer areas of the country, according to a new report.

A major study by the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission revealed that women working full time in Scotland earn 12 per cent less than men.

Another of the key findings in the report, which included figures for inequality across the whole of the UK, showed boys accounted for 78 per cent of all school exclusions in Scotland.

A total of 41 per cent of permanent exclusions were among pupils from the 20 per cent of areas in Scotland with the highest levels of deprivation, according to the report.

The report also found that in 2009, girls outperformed boys in school attainment levels in Scotland, with the percentage of pupils achieving five standard grades at levels one to three or equivalent at 50 per cent for girls and 46 per cent for boys.

The study also revealed low levels of convictions for rape in Scotland, with the conviction rate for the crime falling from 8 per cent in 2006-7 to just under 4 per cent in 2007-8.

Kaliani Lyle, Scotland Commissioner, Equality and Human Rights Commission, said the study showed that there was "some distance still to go" to tackle inequality north of the Border.

She said: "The report shows that public attitudes to diversity in Scotland are greatly improved, and that we are much less tolerant of discrimination.

"Yet despite this significant progress, our ambitions still exceed our achievements and it is clear that we have some distance still to go.

"Despite all our advances, we have unfinished business and new social and economic faultlines to contend with.

"Our 21st century challenge is the danger of a society divided by the barriers of inequality and injustice. We now need to look unflinchingly at the evidence and focus action and resource on changing this situation."

The report showed that Scotland's suicide rate is higher than that for the UK as a whole, with a figure of 12.6 per 100,000 population compared with 9.51 per 100,000 population.

Men are more likely to kill themselves than women, with rates particularly high for men aged 25-34 and those aged 35-44. Men and women living in the most deprived areas are twice as likely to take their own life as those in less deprived areas, according to the study.

The figures also showed that one in seven women, or 15 per cent, and one in nine men - 11 per cent - in Scotland said they had experienced physical forms of partner abuse since the age of 16.There are also 47 per cent of disabled Scottish adults in work compared with 82 per cent for non-disabled adults.

Meanwhile, UK-wide figures showed that income poverty still affected some groups of women, ethnic minority groups and families with disabled members.

Total household wealth of the top 10 per cent in society was almost 100 times higher than for the poorest 10 per cent, while one in five people lived in a household with less than 60 per cent of average income.

One in ten people lived in polluted and grimy neighbourhoods, with crime, violence and vandalism more likely to affect women with children and many ethnic minority groups, according to the report.

Equality and Human Rights Commission chairman Trevor Phillips said: "For some, the gateways to opportunity appear permanently closed, no matter how hard they try; while others seems to have been issued with an 'access all areas' pass at birth."