A Scottish Parliament committee is seeking your views on improving the gender balance on public bodies.
Public bodies are for example: the Scottish Police Authority, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, health boards, enterprise agencies, colleges and universities.
NHS Orkney Health Board consists of nine non-executive members and five executive members.
“The non-executive members are lay people who are invited to sit on the Board by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport. These people generally have other jobs but they receive some remuneration for activities involving their Health Board duties. The Executive Members are all senior managers.”
In Orkney 3 out of 5 executive members are female and 3 out of 9 non-executive members are female.
In Scotland as a whole women make up around 42% of public boards, but are 51.5% of the Scottish population.
“Improving female representation in the boardroom of public bodies, including organisations such as the Scottish Police Authority, our colleges and universities and over 100 other public bodies, is something we would broadly support.”
“But we want to know if this Bill could be improved or strengthened in any way or if changes are needed. Does the Bill have sufficient teeth? Are quotas the right way to go?”
Key questions the Committee is asking include:
- Does the Bill go far enough – should we also look to legislate for other protected characteristics?
- What would the impact be on people applying for an appointment as a non-executive member of a public board? And the impact on recruitment.
- The Bill requires public boards to report on the operation of the Act, what should any reporting requirements cover and why?
- Whether there should be penalties for non-compliance with the Bill and what these should be.
THE CLOSING DATE FOR PROVIDING YOUR VIEWS IS 6.00 PM ON THURSDAY 31/08/17
You can send your views by—
Emailing at: equalities.humanrights@parliament.scot
Writing to : Equalities and Human Rights Committee
Room T3.40
Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh EH99 1SP
Telephone: 0131 348 5223 or 0131 348 6040
Reporter: Fiona Grahame