Scottish Local Government Elections (Candidacy Rights of Commonwealth Citizens) Bill: EQIA

Background

The Scottish Local Government Elections (Candidacy Rights of Commonwealth Citizens) Bill (“the Bill”) is a single-issue Bill which will allow Commonwealth citizens with limited leave to remain in the UK to stand as candidates at Scottish local government elections. This Bill is being introduced to fix an unintended oversight in candidacy rules affecting this group, following changes made in the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025 (“the 2025 Act”).

The intention of the 2025 Act was to extend candidacy rights at Scottish local government elections to all foreign nationals resident in Scotland, with any form of leave to remain in the UK. Due to the complex and piecemeal nature of changes to candidacy law over time, Commonwealth citizens with limited leave to remain were inadvertently not included in this extension of rights. This Bill will fix that oversight and ensure that the stated intention of the 2025 Act as voted on by the Scottish Parliament is reflected in legislation.

The changes in this Bill will affect persons aged 18 or over who are citizens of Commonwealth countries and are resident in Scotland, and have limited leave to remain in the UK.

It is difficult to accurately estimate the number of affected people who fall into the group set out above, as the numbers of people with limited leave to remain broken down by nationality are not readily available, however the affected number of people is expected to be low.