Diversity in political representation in Scotland: data improvement project proposal

We have been scoping out a project to work with stakeholders to improve the completeness of data on the diversity of election candidates and elected representatives in Scotland. This paper sets out details of a proposed new data collection at the 2022 local council elections.


6. Deliverables and approach to reporting

The 2022 local government election candidate and elected member diversity data will be analysed and reported via a publication on the Scottish Government website. Within the publication we will:

  • Present the diversity characteristics of candidates and elected members;
  • Compare diversity characteristics of candidates and elected members with Scotland's population;
  • Compare the diversity of successful and unsuccessful candidates at the 2022 election;
  • Provide intersectional analysis where possible; and
  • Compare the profile of new candidates and elected members with those who have stood / served as elected members previously (if the question on previous experience is included).

Data tables will accompany the publication, which will comply fully with data protection laws. Aggregated national-level data will be provided by protected characteristic. Data on some protected characteristics (e.g. age, sex) may be able to be broken down by local authority, but where numbers of individuals with certain characteristics or combinations of characteristics is small, this will not be provided for data protection reasons.

Contact

Email: Gillian.Cruickshank@gov.scot

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