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The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the participation of people from BAME backgrounds in politics. In 2016 the Scottish Government published the Race equality framework for Scotland 2016-2030. One of its aims is to ensure minority ethnic participation and representation is effective, fair, proportionate, and valued at all levels of political, community and public life.

This ambition is also reflected in the commitment in the Bute House Agreement to encourage more people to register to vote, to stand as candidates and to remove barriers some people experience so they can vote independently.

The Scottish Government funds a post based in CoSLA until March 2024, to support the work of the Cross-Party Barriers to Elected Office Special Interest Group. The group involves elected members from each of COSLA’s Political Groups, and seeks to identify changes in culture and practices, and support our ambition to deliver greater equality and diversity within local democracy.

We recognise that pay may be a barrier to some people standing to become a councillor. The Scottish Government and COSLA have jointly committed to undertake an independent review of Councillor remuneration. The inaugural meeting of the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) was held in April 2023. A report with recommendations for Ministers will be published at the end of November 2023.

The difficulty of getting reliable data on the participation of under-represented groups, including people from BAME backgrounds, is an issue that stakeholders raised during the electoral reform consultation in 2018. In response, the Scottish Government worked closely with a range of stakeholders, including the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, the Electoral Commission, COSLA and the Improvement Service to run a candidate survey for the 2022 Local Government elections.

The Local Government candidate diversity survey suggests that among those who responded (28% of candidates responded, which is lower than we would want but represents a typical response rate for this kind of survey), 6.7% of candidates in 2022 identified as “Asian” or “All other ethnic groups” (rather than “White” or “Prefer not to say”). For those who went on to be elected the figure was 4.0%. We are looking at ways to improve the collection of data in the future as the voluntary approach clearly has its limitations. This survey does however confirm the view that people with BAME backgrounds are under-represented in local government.

Clearly work remains to be done to encourage more people from BAME backgrounds to take part in politics. We are open to ideas to ensure that all members of society have the opportunity to participate in politics and to become elected representatives.

The Scottish Government is committed to achieving fair and equal political representation in the Parliament and local government. Since the 2021 Parliamentary Election, women account for 45% of MSPs, with two women of minority ethnic background for the first time in history. This is the highest percentage of women MSPs since the Scottish Parliament was re-convened in 1999. At a local level, women account for 35% of councillors, the highest percentage of women councillors to date.

In their first report in 2018, the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls (NACWG) recommended the introduction of gender quotas into legislation to address the lack of gender parity. The Scottish Government accepted the recommendation. Although this is currently out with the competence of the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Ministers will continue to call on the UK Government to introduce gender quotas themselves or give Scotland the power to do so. A scoping review of international practice in relation to candidate quotas has been prepared and will be published on the Scottish Government website in 2023.

To mitigate the lack of devolved powers, the Scottish Government will continue to support non-legislative actions to increase women’s representation.

Through our Equality and Human Rights Fund (2021 – 2024), we fund several projects designed to support women through their political journeys. We are providing £305,888 over three years to Elect-Her, who work to support and equip women to stand for political office, through hands-on workshop and peer-support circles. 57 women were supported by Elect-Her in the 2022 Scottish Local Authority Elections, with 27 women winning their elections. We are also supporting the Young Women Lead Programme, which provides a safe space for up to 100 young women under 30 to explore gender equality and develop new and innovative ways to lead change.

We know from existing research that targeted work with political parties is essential if we want to dismantle the barriers that women face in politics. The Scottish Government provides £82,798.94 to Engender to progress the Equal Representation project. The project post works with political parties to increase the representation of diverse women and to progress a second phase of work with the Equal Representation Coalition. The Coalition developed a toolkit for political parties to assess their diversity and policies around inclusion. Parties receive an individualised action plan to improve the participation of under-represented groups.

The Scottish Government funds a post based in CoSLA until March 2024, to support the work of the Cross-Party Barriers to Elected Office Special Interest Group. The group involves elected members from each of COSLA’s Political Groups, and seeks to identify changes in culture and practices, and support our ambition to deliver greater equality and diversity within local democracy.

We recognise that councillor pay may be a barrier to people standing to become a councillor. The Scottish Government and COSLA have jointly committed to undertake an independent review of Councillor remuneration. The inaugural meeting of the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) was held in April 2023. A report with recommendations for Ministers will be published at the end of November 2023.

The Scottish Government has worked with stakeholders to improve the availability of data on the diversity of election candidates and elected representatives in Scotland. We conducted a survey on diversity in political representation at the 2022 local council elections which will help inform next steps around the diversity agenda. The Local Government Candidates Survey 2022 was published in November 2022.

The survey suggests that of those who responded (around 28% of candidates in the elections), 40% identified as female. This figure is lower than the National Records of Scotland data for the entire Scottish population, which records 52% of the population identifying as female. A significantly higher proportion of candidates identified as male in the 18-24, 25-35 and 65+ ranges compared to the overall Scottish population for those age groups. In contrast, the age groups between 35 and 64 showed much less notable gender imbalance, both with regards to those who were successful at election and those that were unsuccessful, as compared to the overall population.

In total, 57% of successfully elected candidates who responded to the survey identified as male, and 42% as female. 60% of unsuccessful candidates identified as male, and 38% female. The survey data suggests that those identifying as female made up a higher percentage of elected candidate respondents with a limiting condition (54%). Note that these are not the figures for all candidates in 2022, only those who responded to the survey.

The proportion of female local government candidates rose by only four percentage points between 1999 and the 2017 local government elections, from 26.8% to 30.5%.

The Scottish Government has recognised the challenge with navigating the net zero funding landscape and we are working to simplify and streamline it through a funding alignment programme that commenced in 2022.

We also published a directory of climate change funding for public sector organisations in August 2022. This helps local authorities and other public bodies to identify funding to support their delivery of net zero. It highlights opportunities in a range of areas including transport, heat and waste and provides key contacts and links to information on accessing the funding. The directory is available on the Sustainable Scotland Network website and will be reviewed this year to ensure the information is up to date and to consider any improvements that can be made to make it easier for local authorities and other public bodies to navigate.

Following public consultation in 2019, the Scottish Government strengthened the legislative framework for public bodies’ annual reporting on compliance with their statutory climate change duties. The Climate Change (Duties of Public Bodies: Reporting Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2020 requires public bodies, where applicable, to report their target date for achieving zero direct emissions (scope 1) and, where applicable, their targets for reducing indirect emissions (scopes 2 and 3).

To support the strengthened reporting duties, the Scottish Government and Sustainable Scotland Network (SSN) co-developed guidance - Public Sector Leadership on the Global Climate Emergency - published in 2021. Further supplementary guidance and resources to support climate change reporting are available online on the SSN website.

The Scottish Government is working with SSN to co-develop new comprehensive statutory guidance on public bodies’ climate change duties for publication in 2025.

The Climate Intelligence Service, which we plan to establish this year, will provide local authorities with the data, tools and skills to help ensure that they are on the right trajectory for net zero and to embed climate impact into local decision making.

The local road network is the responsibility of local authorities and they will allocate resources on the basis of local priorities. The vast majority of funding to local authorities from the Scottish Government is provided via a block grant and we do not stipulate how local authorities should utilise their individual allocations. It is therefore the responsibility of each local authority to manage their own budget and to allocate the financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Despite UK Government cuts, the Scottish Government has protected Councils in the most challenging Budget since devolution to provide nearly £13.5 billion in the 2023-24 Local Government Settlement – a cash increase of over £793 million or 6.3%, which is a real terms increase of £376 million or 3%.

The Scottish Safety Camera Handbook is kept under continuous review by the Road Safety Strategic Partnership Board which provides strategic support and direction to the Scottish Safety Camera Programme. This acts to ensure safety camera resources continue to maximise their casualty reduction potential to communities across Scotland.

ScotRail implemented the consulted timetable in South West Scotland in May 2022 and advised this was a new starting point and passenger use would be closely monitored. As a result, in May 2023, a further five additional services will operate during the day between Ayr and Kilmarnock, improving access to employment, education, healthcare and leisure facilities for communities in south west Scotland, as many of these services originate or terminate at Girvan.

ScotRail advise that there are currently no plans to change the five trains per day which currently operate between Girvan and Stranraer – these operate at the times customers told ScotRail were most useful to them. ScotRail will continue to monitor passenger use of rail services to Stranraer and engage with communities to ensure the service level meets local needs.

Transport Scotland officials regularly meet with the A77 Action group, to which representatives from the ferry operators are invited. Meeting invites to these meetings are sent to PO Ferries, Belfast Harbour and Stena Line.

The last meeting of this group was held on 3 February 2023, however, the last meeting attended by ferry operators was in September 2022.

Representatives from Transport Scotland’s operating company AMEY also meet the ferry operators on an ad hoc basis, as part of the consultation process around planned roadworks on the trunk road network.

NHS Health Boards have a legal requirement through the Organisational Duty of Candour Regulations (2018) to review certain types of adverse events (defined as unintended or unexpected incidents that result in, or could result in, death or harm), record each incident where the organisational duty of candour procedure is followed, meet personally with those affected, offer an apology and consider how the learning can be applied.

Boards are required to record all Significant Adverse Event Reviews commissioned and report them to Healthcare Improvement Scotland. This system has been in place since January 2020.

Our ambitious 10-year cancer strategy is nearing completion, with publication planned this Spring. The strategy will be under-pinned by action plans which will evolve with the changing cancer landscape. The strategy will take a comprehensive approach to improving patient pathways from prevention and diagnosis through to treatment and post-treatment care.

It will encompass a new earlier cancer diagnosis vision for Scotland and will continue to focus on those cancer types that are the largest burden and have poorer survival, in particular the less survivable cancers, including liver cancer.