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Pensions are already affordable for Scotland. Total expenditure on social protection, which covers pensions and broader welfare spending has been lower in Scotland than the UK over the past five years.

As set out in Scotland’s Future, this government would pursue a broader growth-based approach to boost working age population, increase labour market participation and improve productivity.

The Public Appointments Centre of Expertise uses a range of different evaluation methods to measure the impact of events. This is tailored to the type of event and its audience. This has included an increase in applications received following a particular event, increased interest from those with particular skills or experience, additional requests to be added to our mailing register for details of future opportunities and informal feedback from event attendees. Further work will be undertaken to ensure evaluation methods are robust and able to fully inform future action.

Following Diversity Delivers it was felt appropriate to establish a Public Bodies and Corporate Diversity Programme Board, to give a renewed focus to the diversity agenda and to build on the work done to date. This work is centred around providing strong leadership and influence and on delivering diversity through practical change to the appointments process. Practical measures undertaken so far have involved the use of increased outreach activity, streamlining our application processes and guidance and the use of social media to highlight opportunities.

Both diversity and unconscious bias training is available online to all Scottish Government employees through the Civil Service Learning portal. Although no diversity training for external selection panel members specific to this workstream has been delivered to date, plans are currently being considered jointly with the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland to develop suitable training. The Public Bodies and Corporate Diversity Programme Board and stakeholders will consider the content and timing of this training to ensure that any investment made delivers results.

Both diversity and unconscious bias training is available online to all Scottish Government employees through the Civil Service Learning portal. Although no diversity training for external selection panel members specific to this workstream has been delivered to date, plans are currently being considered jointly with the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland to develop suitable training. The Public Bodies and Corporate Diversity Programme Board and stakeholders will consider the content and timing of this training to ensure that any investment made delivers results.

Appointments to the boards of public bodies are the responsibility of Scottish Ministers and each minister will appoint the person he or she considers to be best qualified for the position, based on specific, published criteria. In making this decision, the minister adheres to the Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies in Scotland, issued by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland. The code sets out the principles on which all appointments are made: merit, integrity and diversity and equality. In addition, for many of those appointments regulated by the commissioner, a public appointments adviser, appointed by him, undertakes contemporaneous scrutiny of the appointment process to ensure these principles are upheld. Where the principles of the code are not upheld, the commissioner has the power to intervene. Depending on the circumstances, the commissioner may advise the appointing minister so that action can be taken to address the issue, or to report directly to the Scottish Parliament.

As previously answered in S4W-20607, a programme of activity is currently being developed by the Scottish Government, in conjunction with the programme board and stakeholders. Action plans and targets are still in the developmental phase. Connecting with users’ experiences and raising awareness amongst influencers will be key to the success of the programme.

The Public Boards and Corporate Diversity Programme have the core aim of improving the diversity of public and private boards in Scotland. Activities undertaken to date have been informed by an analysis of the evidence relating to women and people from other under-represented groups. We will continue to consider the equality implications of our proposed interventions, including any changes to systems and processes, throughout the life of the programme and will publish the results of equality results as appropriate on the Scottish Government's website in due course.

Diversity data for those programme board members who are Scottish Government employees is captured on our electronic HR system. We are currently exploring methods of capturing this information for our non-Scottish Government employees on our electronic HR system. In addition, the Scottish Government does not publish sensitive personal data for numbers less than five to protect individual confidentiality.

The Scottish Government’s view was that 2025 was a reasonable target. It aims to balance being attainable and stretching, given the significant resource constraints on the organisation, such as a general presumption against external recruitment. These resourcing constraints have an impact on our ability to change the shape of the organisation. The timeframe also gives the organisation time to reflect on the 2021 census results.