Scottish Government Equality Outcomes: Age Evidence Review

This evidence review was prepared to support the production of the Scottish Government's Equality Outcomes, with regard to age.


10 Public appointments

10.1 This section presents the available data on public appointments in relation to age.

10.2 A Public Appointment is an appointment to the board of any of the public bodies across Scotland - either as a member, or as the chair[131]. The board's role is to provide leadership, direction and guidance, it is not involved in the day-to-day running of the public body.

10.3 Diversity Delivers shows the that rate of appointments for applicants aged under 49/50[x] has increased in the previous three years: from 15.6% in 2010 to nearly 29% in 2011/12[132]. The proportion of applications from this age group, however, has fallen markedly: from 32.4% in 2006 to 20.5% in 2011/12[133] [134].

10.4 Diversity Delivers provides a detailed breakdown of applicants' age compared with general population (data for 2005-07). It shows that the most common age range for applicants remained the 51­60 age group. At around 40% of all applicants, this group accounted for around twice as many applicants as any other age bracket, despite only 13% of the population falling into this category.

10.5 The Scottish Government's website for public appointments[135] reports that, in the public appointments rounds for 2011-12, 20.5% of applicants were under 50 and almost 29% of appointees were under 50. It is anticipated that data to 2013 will be published on the same website later this year.

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