To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps her Department is taking to address the issue of age discrimination. [109451]

My Department has taken steps to integrate age into its equal opportunity policies and remains committed to ensuring there is no unfair discrimination on the basis of age. Action on diversity has and will continue to tackle any negative attitudes towards older staff particularly through the training and development of managers and through the monitoring of recruitment, selection and appraisal statistics. Staff over 60 can remain in employment on a year to year basis, subject to certain criteria.