I am grateful for the opportunity to address the committee on the annual report and to answer any questions that you may have on it or on the updated material, which you should now have before you. You will have noted from the briefing paper that my remit covers the investigation of a range of complaints. That consumes roughly two thirds of the resources of my office, and the balance is applied to my public appointments remit, on which there is a good story to tell.
I will start with the complaints side. The vast bulk of the complaints workload involves complaints against councillors, and a few complaints—albeit a growing number—against members of public bodies. Complaints about the conduct of MSPs are relatively infrequent. Even though the number received in the year covered by the report represented a significant percentage increase on previous years, most of them fell outside my remit; they were excluded complaints or were simply inept, and were therefore inadmissible. The average number of complaints about MSPs since 2004-05 is very nearly 24—it is 23 point something—so last year may have been a bit of a blip in terms of numbers.
The numbers are set out in table 11, on page 11 of the annual report, and table 13, on the following page, shows how they were dealt with. If the committee is interested, I would be happy to go into more detail about how they were dealt with, but in the interests of brevity I will skip over that detail at the moment.
I should point out that, during the year, three complaints led to reports being submitted to your predecessor committee, and one complaint was still under investigation when the Parliament was dissolved. In the first six months of the current year, the number of complaints that we received about MSP conduct was 11. If that pattern continues—and I have no idea what will happen—the total number received by the end of the year will be near to the average that I have referred to across the past 10 years or so.
I said that there was a good story to tell in relation to public appointments, and there are two parts to that story. The first part is a significantly improved working relationship between my office, including the public appointments advisers, and the staff of the Scottish Government who are involved in the arrangement and management of public appointments and in advising on them. We have, in effect, a partnership approach that has included, among other activities, Ian Bruce’s participation in a group that has been set up to take forward a range of projects designed to promote and co-ordinate efforts to improve diversity on public boards.
I am pleased to report a measure of success in taking forward those co-ordinated initiatives, the combined impact of which has been a marked improvement in the representation of several underrepresented groups on public boards to which appointments are made by Scottish ministers. I emphasise, though, that although the appointment of people from underrepresented groups in society is a good thing, it is only one part of diversity. The concept of diversity is not limited to the protected characteristics set out in the Equality Act 2010. The other important aspect is diversity of thought and outlook, based on the skills, experience, knowledge and other relevant attributes of the individuals who present themselves.
I also draw attention to the important point that the appointment of board members must be based on merit, which is what determines who is put forward for appointment. That is clearly set out in the “Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies in Scotland” and in the guidance that I have issued. There is therefore, in my opinion, no room for tokenism. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and I think that you will find that in table 25 on page 21 of the annual report, which shows the demographic profile of board membership at the end of 2015. Table 26, on the following page, shows how that has changed over the period from 2004-05. The update to table 25, which I hope has been made available to you, brings it almost bang up to date and shows the continuing improvements in respect of some but, admittedly, not all of the target groups.
I finish by referring to the office’s strategic plan for 2016 to 2020, which was published at the beginning of this financial year. I have two strategic objectives, one for each side of the work. The first is an accessible complaints process with trusted outcomes; and the other is public boards that are effective and reflective of society.
I thank you for your attention.