Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to achieving fair and equal political representation in the Parliament and local government. Since the 2021 Parliamentary Election, women account for 45% of MSPs, with two women of minority ethnic background for the first time in history. This is the highest percentage of women MSPs since the Scottish Parliament was re-convened in 1999. At a local level, women account for 35% of councillors, the highest percentage of women councillors to date.

In their first report in 2018, the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls (NACWG) recommended the introduction of gender quotas into legislation to address the lack of gender parity. The Scottish Government accepted the recommendation. Although this is currently out with the competence of the Scottish Parliament, Scottish Ministers will continue to call on the UK Government to introduce gender quotas themselves or give Scotland the power to do so. A scoping review of international practice in relation to candidate quotas has been prepared and will be published on the Scottish Government website in 2023.

To mitigate the lack of devolved powers, the Scottish Government will continue to support non-legislative actions to increase women’s representation.

Through our Equality and Human Rights Fund (2021 – 2024), we fund several projects designed to support women through their political journeys. We are providing £305,888 over three years to Elect-Her, who work to support and equip women to stand for political office, through hands-on workshop and peer-support circles. 57 women were supported by Elect-Her in the 2022 Scottish Local Authority Elections, with 27 women winning their elections. We are also supporting the Young Women Lead Programme, which provides a safe space for up to 100 young women under 30 to explore gender equality and develop new and innovative ways to lead change.

We know from existing research that targeted work with political parties is essential if we want to dismantle the barriers that women face in politics. The Scottish Government provides £82,798.94 to Engender to progress the Equal Representation project. The project post works with political parties to increase the representation of diverse women and to progress a second phase of work with the Equal Representation Coalition. The Coalition developed a toolkit for political parties to assess their diversity and policies around inclusion. Parties receive an individualised action plan to improve the participation of under-represented groups.

The Scottish Government funds a post based in CoSLA until March 2024, to support the work of the Cross-Party Barriers to Elected Office Special Interest Group. The group involves elected members from each of COSLA’s Political Groups, and seeks to identify changes in culture and practices, and support our ambition to deliver greater equality and diversity within local democracy.

We recognise that councillor pay may be a barrier to people standing to become a councillor. The Scottish Government and COSLA have jointly committed to undertake an independent review of Councillor remuneration. The inaugural meeting of the Scottish Local Authorities Remuneration Committee (SLARC) was held in April 2023. A report with recommendations for Ministers will be published at the end of November 2023.

The Scottish Government has worked with stakeholders to improve the availability of data on the diversity of election candidates and elected representatives in Scotland. We conducted a survey on diversity in political representation at the 2022 local council elections which will help inform next steps around the diversity agenda. The Local Government Candidates Survey 2022 was published in November 2022.

The survey suggests that of those who responded (around 28% of candidates in the elections), 40% identified as female. This figure is lower than the National Records of Scotland data for the entire Scottish population, which records 52% of the population identifying as female. A significantly higher proportion of candidates identified as male in the 18-24, 25-35 and 65+ ranges compared to the overall Scottish population for those age groups. In contrast, the age groups between 35 and 64 showed much less notable gender imbalance, both with regards to those who were successful at election and those that were unsuccessful, as compared to the overall population.

In total, 57% of successfully elected candidates who responded to the survey identified as male, and 42% as female. 60% of unsuccessful candidates identified as male, and 38% female. The survey data suggests that those identifying as female made up a higher percentage of elected candidate respondents with a limiting condition (54%). Note that these are not the figures for all candidates in 2022, only those who responded to the survey.

The proportion of female local government candidates rose by only four percentage points between 1999 and the 2017 local government elections, from 26.8% to 30.5%.

ScotRail implemented the consulted timetable in South West Scotland in May 2022 and advised this was a new starting point and passenger use would be closely monitored. As a result, in May 2023, a further five additional services will operate during the day between Ayr and Kilmarnock, improving access to employment, education, healthcare and leisure facilities for communities in south west Scotland, as many of these services originate or terminate at Girvan.

ScotRail advise that there are currently no plans to change the five trains per day which currently operate between Girvan and Stranraer – these operate at the times customers told ScotRail were most useful to them. ScotRail will continue to monitor passenger use of rail services to Stranraer and engage with communities to ensure the service level meets local needs.

The Scottish Ministers, in exercise of their powers under Section 88 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, offer to give to the Scottish Police Authority an annual grant in connection with delivery of the operational policing aspects of the Scottish Safety Camera Programme. These operational aspects are undertaken by three regional safety camera units covering the north, east and west of Scotland.

The value of the grant for the 3 year period 2020-2023 is set out below.

Across Scotland safety cameras are deployed through the Scottish Safety Camera Programme primarily where they have the greatest potential to reduce injury collisions and where there is evidence of both collisions and speeding. This is in accordance with criteria contained in the Scottish Safety Camera Programme Handbook.

There are a range of sites along the A75 where mobile safety camera resources are deployed.

An annual site prioritisation exercise is underway to assess the performance of all existing safety camera sites across Scotland and to identify locations which meet minimum criteria requirements. If new locations are identified on the A75 which meet minimum criteria requirements then consideration will be given to deploying additional camera resources on the route.

The Scottish Safety Camera Handbook is kept under continuous review by the Road Safety Strategic Partnership Board which provides strategic support and direction to the Scottish Safety Camera Programme. This acts to ensure safety camera resources continue to maximise their casualty reduction potential to communities across Scotland.

Transport Scotland officials regularly meet with the A77 Action group, to which representatives from the ferry operators are invited. Meeting invites to these meetings are sent to PO Ferries, Belfast Harbour and Stena Line.

The last meeting of this group was held on 3 February 2023, however, the last meeting attended by ferry operators was in September 2022.

Representatives from Transport Scotland’s operating company AMEY also meet the ferry operators on an ad hoc basis, as part of the consultation process around planned roadworks on the trunk road network.

In the Statement to Parliament by the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport, on the 26 January 2023, a Delivery Plan for STPR2 to provide further insight on the prioritisation of the recommendations will follow later this year, and this will set out the investment priorities over 20 years.

Whilst it is important to note that progress is already being made on 38 of the 45 recommendations, it has not been possible to fund all of our current commitments from the existing capital spending review. Thus, it is important that the Delivery Plan is developed in the context of the on-going cost of living crisis and the Scottish Government’s fiscal outlook. These financial challenges have a bearing on the investment pipeline of projects and programmes, both pre-existing and STPR2 recommendations, plus statutory and legal commitments.

PHS publish waiting times data on a quarterly basis. The next publication covering the period to March 2023 will be published on 30 May 2023.

We remain committed to increasing capacity to support recovery, including providing additional endoscopies. To support this we have put in place four mobile endoscopy units, which are providing five to six endoscopy rooms across NHS Scotland. A Dyce facility continues to provide additional endoscopy for NHS Grampian and a new endoscopy room is due to open in NHS Ayrshire and Arran on 1 May 2023.

NTC Golden Jubilee Phase 2 is planned to open in late 2023 bringing additional capacity of five orthopaedic theatres, five endoscopy rooms and two general theatres, and around 9,400 procedures in 2023-24.

We continue to work with Boards on a series of measures to increase diagnostic capacity. Scotland’s world-leading diagnostic bowel service, Colon Capsule Endoscopy (CCE), has supported nearly 3,000 patients since becoming operational in June 2020, including around 2,500 since April 2021.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to offer funding to the University of Dundee to support access to magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) treatment for patients with essential tremor.

The Scottish Government recognises the benefits magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) could provide to eligible patients with essential tremor. However, we do not formally assess the impact of clinical interventions.