David McLetchie
Conservative
Question S1W-18802
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list for each year since the declaration of political affiliation became mandatory as part of the system of appointments to public bodies in Scotland (a) the total number of appointments made, (b) the number of appointees who declared a political affiliation and (c) the number of these appointees affiliated to each of the political parties in Scotland.
Angus MacKay
Labour
Political activity declarations were introduced by the Commissioner for Public Appointments in 1996. The information they contain is monitored by the commissioner to ensure that all appointments are made on merit after a fair, open and transparent process. All appointments made under the terms and conditions of Commissioner's Code are subject to independent scrutiny. Independent Assessors are required to play a full and active part in the appointments process to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly. Ministers can only appoint individuals to posts on the recommendation of appointment panels whose membership must include at least one Independent Assessor.
The following table details the requested information. However, the statistical data has not been collated in a way which enables it to be split into individual years. The table does, however, detail all appointments made up to 31 March 2001.
As the table shows, the vast majority of appointees are not politically active. Only 137 out of a total of 1,015 (13.5%) undertook political activities in the five-year period prior to their appointment.
| TOP" width="21%"> Period | No. of New Appointments Made | Total of New Appointees Declaring Political Activity | New Appointees Affiliation to Political Parties | ||||
Other | |||||||
1/7/96 - 31/3/97 | 137 | 12 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
1/4/97 - 31/3/98 | 204 | 20 | 5 | 14 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
1/4/98 - 30/9/98 | 82 | 11 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
1/10/98 - 31/12/98 | 47 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
1/1/99 - 31/12/99 | 365 | 56 | 9 | 29 | 6 | 4 | 8 |
1/1/00 - 30/9/00 | 147 | 21 | 2 | 16 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
1/10/00 - 31/3/01 | 33 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Totals | 1,015 | 137 | 23 | 84 | 9 | 8 | 13 |
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