Scottish Government Equality Outcomes: Age Evidence Review

10 Public appointments

10.1 This section presents the available data on public appointments in relation to age.

10.2 A Public Appointment is an appointment to the board of any of the public bodies across Scotland - either as a member, or as the chair^[131]. The board's role is to provide leadership, direction and guidance, it is not involved in the day-to-day running of the public body.

10.3 Diversity Delivers shows the that rate of appointments for applicants aged under 49/50^[x] has increased in the previous three years: from 15.6% in 2010 to nearly 29% in 2011/12^[132]. The proportion of applications from this age group, however, has fallen markedly: from 32.4% in 2006 to 20.5% in 2011/12^{[133] [134]}.

10.4 Diversity Delivers provides a detailed breakdown of applicants' age compared with general population (data for 2005-07). It shows that the most common age range for applicants remained the 51­60 age group. At around 40% of all applicants, this group accounted for around twice as many applicants as any other age bracket, despite only 13% of the population falling into this category.

10.5 The Scottish Government's website for public appointments^[135] reports that, in the public appointments rounds for 2011-12, 20.5% of applicants were under 50 and almost 29% of appointees were under 50. It is anticipated that data to 2013 will be published on the same website later this year.