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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%.

The Scottish Government is committed to increasing the participation of people from BAME backgrounds in politics. In 2016 the Scottish Government published the Race equality framework for Scotland 2016-2030. One of its aims is to ensure minority ethnic participation and representation is effective, fair, proportionate, and valued at all levels of political, community and public life.

This ambition is also reflected in the commitment in the Bute House Agreement to encourage more people to register to vote, to stand as candidates and to remove barriers some people experience so they can vote independently.

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 pay may be a barrier to some 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 difficulty of getting reliable data on the participation of under-represented groups, including people from BAME backgrounds, is an issue that stakeholders raised during the electoral reform consultation in 2018. In response, the Scottish Government worked closely with a range of stakeholders, including the Electoral Management Board for Scotland, the Electoral Commission, COSLA and the Improvement Service to run a candidate survey for the 2022 Local Government elections.

The Local Government candidate diversity survey suggests that among those who responded (28% of candidates responded, which is lower than we would want but represents a typical response rate for this kind of survey), 6.7% of candidates in 2022 identified as “Asian” or “All other ethnic groups” (rather than “White” or “Prefer not to say”). For those who went on to be elected the figure was 4.0%. We are looking at ways to improve the collection of data in the future as the voluntary approach clearly has its limitations. This survey does however confirm the view that people with BAME backgrounds are under-represented in local government.

Clearly work remains to be done to encourage more people from BAME backgrounds to take part in politics. We are open to ideas to ensure that all members of society have the opportunity to participate in politics and to become elected representatives.

The Scottish Government will continue to work closely with a range of partners, including Skills Development Scotland, to ensure that all young people have access to a positive destination, including employment opportunities. Additionally, we are working with partners in the Third Sector to develop a whole system approach to supporting all young people, eliminate discrimination and ensure that no one is left behind.

Through our youth employment strategy, Developing the Young Workforce (DYW), we are working with employers to deliver work relevant education to young people in Scotland and provide the skills required for the current and anticipated jobs market. This includes creating new vocational learning options, enabling young people to learn in a range of settings in their senior phase of school, embedding employer engagement in education, offering careers advice at an earlier point in education delivery and introduce new standards for careers guidance and work experience.

The latest estimates of unemployment for 16 to 24 year olds from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - the National Statistics source for labour market indicators by region and age - show that in January to December 2022, an estimated 34,300 people aged 16-24 were unemployed in Scotland. This is 800 more than the number of unemployed 16 to 24 year olds in 2021. However, there was a decrease in the unemployment rate for this group of 0.5 percentage points to 9.7% in 2022. For the same time period, the number of 16-24 year olds in employment in 2022 was an estimated 318,700, an increase of 23,200 from 2021.

The Scottish Prison Service are committed to treating everyone in their care with dignity and respect and do not provide the personal information of prisoners.

Any transgender individuals in custody are supported and managed through an individualised risk assessment and case conference process that protects their rights and needs, as well as the welfare and rights of others around them, including staff, in order to achieve an outcome that balances risks and promotes the safety of all.

The Scottish Government does not seek to replicate the work of the Cass Review. However, as we have previously stated, the interim findings of that Review continue to be closely considered by both Scottish Government and NHS Scotland, alongside broader national and international evidence. As part of this, officials and senior clinicians from the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland have also met with Dr Cass and members of the Cass Review team to discuss respective approaches.

Our Strategic Action Framework for NHS gender identity service improvement includes a commitment to support the establishment of nationally commissioned Young Person’s Gender Identity Service. Discussions and scoping with NHS National Services Scotland and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, to consider current and future national provision, are ongoing.

Operational decisions on resourcing and staffing matters are for colleges to consider and decide but the Scottish Government expects colleges to align their staffing complement and skills with the needs of the economy and future skills. Colleges should work together with unions to make every effort to protect jobs where possible but colleges are not bound by Public Sector Pay Policy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W- 15244 on 1 March 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-15244 on 1 March 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers