Equalities data on members of the boards of public bodies: FOI release

Information requested

You asked “can you let me know do you hold equalities data on members of the boards of public bodies in Scotland and, if so, can you tell me how many trans people, and specifically trans women, there are in total on the boards of Scotland's public bodies?”

Response

1. Equalities data is held on regulated ministerial appointments made to the boards of Scottish public bodies. Summary data is published annually in the Ethical Standards Commissioner’s Annual Report. The latest published report for 2020-21 can be found at Public Appointments Annual Report 2020-21 | Ethical Standards Commissioner.

2. Applications for a regulated Scottish ministerial public appointment are made via the Scottish Government’s online applicant tracking system. There are diversity monitoring questions which all applicants answer as part of the application process. A new applicant tracking system was introduced on 13 December 2021. Since the introduction of this new application tracking system, the questions have included a trans and trans history question and appointment rounds where advertising commenced after that date have included the question. No one appointed to a regulated Scottish ministerial public appointment where the new question set has been used has declared that they are trans or have a trans history.

3. Prior to the use of the trans and trans history question in the Scottish Government’s applicant tracking system, the data is not held.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.