Local Government Candidates Survey 2022

18. Conclusion & Recommendations

The survey represents a key milestone in the collection of diversity data for candidates running for election to Local Government in Scotland by providing evidence which can be considered in relation to issues of representativeness of candidates as compared to the Scottish population.

Considering the data as a whole we can see that there are areas where there is evidence to point towards the potential for over and under-representativeness of certain segments of the population amongst the candidate respondent group. For instance, with regards to sex, age, education, disability status and socio-economic background there appeared to be notable divergence between the profile of respondents as compared to the overall population. Specifically, we saw evidence for less females, younger individuals, individuals with less than degree level qualifications, individuals with a limiting health condition and individuals from lower-socio economic groups as compared to the population as a whole. Despite this there were also some results that ran contrary to this trend with there being a higher proportion of respondents who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or in some other way other than heterosexual as compared to the overall population.

Further analysis which incorporated consideration of intersectionality uncovered a more complex picture with regards to representativeness. Notably that gender imbalance, in the form of over-representativeness of males amongst respondents was particularly high in the younger (18 to 34) and older age groups (65 plus) and lower amongst those in the middle age group (35 o 64).

While this data is useful we should still exercise caution in the interpretation of results given that the response rate was below 30% and that it is not possible to determine how representative the respondents are, as compared to the total population of individuals who stood as candidates. As a result it is also not possible to draw firm conclusions regarding the representativeness of candidates, both elected and unelected, as compared to the overall Scottish population.

Further consideration will be given to how this project can be built upon and how a more representative set of data can be gathered in future years. We will work with partner organisations and stakeholder groups to both disseminate and discuss findings as well as consider next steps for further improvement of data collected on the demographics and representativeness of candidates standing for election in Scotland.