Public appointments - data: 2018 and 2019

Demographic data

Demographic data includes information like whether someone is a woman or a man, whether they are disabled, how old they are, what their ethnic background is and what their sexual orientation is.

We collect demographic data because we want to know if public appointees are reflective of the people of Scotland. We ask people to give us their demographic data when they apply for a public appointment. We ask for this in a document we call a Monitoring Form which is separate to the application form. The selection panels for public appointments do not see the demographic data of individuals.

We use the demographic data each year to see if we have met the targets that the Ethical Standards Commissioner sets us for applications. We also use the demographic data to help us plan actions for public appointments to be reflective of the different people in Scotland.

It helps us if people give us their demographic data in the Monitoring Form when they apply. However, people do not have to tell us the information. They can choose 'Prefer not to say' for some or all of the demographic questions. That is shown here in the diagrams as 'PNS' or 'Prefer not to say'.