Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018: Scottish Ministers' Report in their role as an Appointing Person

1. Introduction

This is the Scottish Ministers’ report on their role as an Appointing Person, as set out in Regulation 2 of the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 (Reports) Regulations 2020 (referred to in this report as “the 2020 Regulations”). In order to meet the requirements of the 2020 Regulations, data was requested from all of the Boards subject to the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018 (the 2018 Act) where Scottish Ministers are the appointing person.

Scottish Ministers are the Appointing Person for 78 Public Body Boards, where those Boards are listed for the 2018 Act and where appointments to the board are regulated by the Ethical Standards Commissioner (ESC).

There are 65 other Boards where the ESC have no oversight of the appointment process. The majority of appointments to these Boards have Scottish Ministers as the Appointing Person, but a number of them do not.

For consistency with previous reporting, data on all of the 143 Boards subject to the 2018 Act has again been included in this report, including those appointments not made by Scottish Ministers.

In the following chapter, information is provided in relation to: progress towards achieving the gender representation objective, the number of vacancies advertised and appointments made, and the steps taken to encourage applications from women.

The 2018 Act set out the requirement for public authorities and Appointing Persons to take steps towards achieving the Gender Representation Objective. The last report published covering the period to 31 December 2022 showed that 58 of 78 (74%) regulated Boards and 26 of 49 (53%) non-regulated Boards (including Colleges and Higher Education Institutes) met the gender representation objective. Overall 84 of 143 (59%) of Boards covered by the 2018 Act had met the GRO as at 31 December 2022.

This report shows that as at 31 December 2024, 88 of 143 (62%) Boards had met the GRO, an increase of 3 percentage points. 51 of 78 (65%) regulated Boards have met the GRO. Whilst at this reporting date, this is unfortunately a decrease from the December 2022 position, it is worth noting this is a continually evolving number as board membership, including the number of positions on a board, change overtime. The Public Appointments Team continue to work towards the GRO for each board at each appointment round. 38 of 65 (57%) non-regulated Boards (including Colleges and Higher Education Institutes) have met the GRO, an increase from December 2022.

The Scottish Government continues to work with public bodies to incorporate considerations on improving board diversity. We know that high performing Boards help drive effective public bodies and continuous improvement in public services. Diverse Boards are more likely to be better able to understand their stakeholders and to benefit from fresh perspectives, new ideas, vigorous challenge and broad experience.