Research: What do the Scottish Parliament's new players bring to Team Scotland?

The David Hume Institute measures diversity of Scotland's top leaders, including the Scottish Parliament. The challenges the pandemic has brought mean we need to ensure diversity across decision makers to help recovery because diversity of thought improves organisation performance.

As the representative of people in Scotland, MSPs have a key role to play in helping the public see that leaders can come from all walks of life.

The speed of progress towards education diversity in Parliament is increasing. Now 1 in 5 or 20% of MSPs attended a fee paying school, compared to 1 in 4 (24%) in the last session. By comparison fee-paying pupils make up just 6% of the general population.

Unless the rate of change increases it will be the 2056 election before Parliament reflects the education background of the wider population. 

The 2021 Scottish Parliament elections have rightly been praised for giving Scotland the most diverse Parliament in its history. With greater representation of people of colour, disability, LGBT+ community, young MSPs and female representation, intentional moves by political parties to increase diversity of candidates is leading to a Parliament that more accurately represents its population.

The research also analysed work experience and careers before politics. The 2021 intake of MSPs had a wide range of employment experience before entering the Scottish Parliament. This adds to the range of life experience and skills to draw on when representing people: for constituency case work, contributing to the committees and the chamber. 19% also have previous experience representing people through being local councillors.

Read the full analysis to find out more about the 2021 changes in the Scottish Parliament. The election feels like a milestone in progress towards Scotland becoming a more equal society but there is still a long way to go for the parliament to be representative of the Scottish population and to realise the benefits of greater diversity.

What's Your Action?

The David Hume Institute launched the website WhatsYourAction.scot* after listening to over 5,000 people across Scotland in the largest inter-generational polling and research exercise in the last 5 years.

The research, which included nationwide polling and group conversations, showed people in Scotland are taking action to be kinder, care for the environment and being more conscious about how and where they spend their money, among a host of other actions.

Across Scotland, we started conversations; with people in different places, from different backgrounds and with different experiences and levels of engagement with policymaking. We asked questions, and listened. We wanted to hear different perspectives about what we can all do and hear people’s priorities for action. 

We found so much enthusiasm and energy for tackling Scotland’s persistent problems. The response was loud and clear: we can all do something; every journey starts with a single step -  the time for action is now.

People across Scotland shared their actions:

Image from the WhatsYourAction.Scot website which closed in January 2025

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Research

In 2020, the David Hume Institute held conversations with people around Scotland.  Over 4,500 people contributed to the research from all ages and backgrounds.  As well as trusted partner organisations in local communities we worked with the Children’s Parliament, The Scottish Youth Parliament and U3A to ensure we reached a diverse range of participants.

Three priorities came up consistently in the research and people saw the priorities as interlinked;

• Be actively kind, considerate and connected in all aspects of your life

• Take more and faster action to support the nature and the environment, including through tackling climate change

• Make conscious choices with money

People saw the three key priority actions differently for individuals, communities and businesses.

For individuals

Be actively kind, considerate and connected in all aspects of your life

• Covid has taught us all we need to make time for being kind. Change starts today.

• Be connected.  Commit to making time to stop and chat – help build community one conversation at a time.

• Seek out ways to get to know people with different backgrounds. Create opportunities to expand your bubble.

Take more and faster action to support nature and the environment, including through tackling climate change

• Take action to improve the natural environment such as pick up litter on your street, volunteer with a local environmental group or take part in national initiatives such as the Great British Beach Clean.

• Take responsibility for finding out your impact on the world (e.g. use a free tool like Pawprint), and take action to reduce that impact.

Make conscious choices with money

• Be a conscious consumer. Wherever you can, use your spending power to support businesses that make a positive impact.  

• Ask how others are using your money. Assess how your money e.g. savings or a pension, are invested to make an ethical impact. 

• If you have spare savings, could it be doing more than sitting in a bank?  Consider investing in the things or places you care about e.g. new local investment angel groups.

For communities

Be actively kind, considerate and connected in all aspects of your life

• Be welcoming and open to new people. Groups are critical to helping people connect and build relationships. 

• For groups that have a formal role in communities, ensure decision makers have been trained to be inclusive e.g. anti-racist education, unconscious bias training in order to fulfil their responsibilities.

• Join in initiatives to help raise awareness of the power of being connected e.g. the big lunch, play streets, window wanderland

• Invest in youth work to realise its power to support young people and communities.

• Build support around young people so it’s there as and when they need it e.g. through youth work.

Take more and faster action to support nature and the environment, including through tackling climate change

• Encourage more people to volunteer and work together to make sure that everyone has access to nature on their doorstep. Make sure playgrounds and parks are accessible for disabled children.

• Use the momentum of national campaigns (such as Scotland’s Young People’s Forest) to help. 

• Use the learning from other communities that have taken collective action on the environment (e.g.  community energy projects, green spaces) to bring more and faster progress in your local area.

Make conscious choices with money

• Seek out ways to work with other organisations to support and improve your local community.  

• Use initiatives such as ‘shop local’ campaigns and projects to improve the local economy.  Collaborative efforts maximise impact and build a thriving local ecosystem.

For business

Be actively kind, considerate and connected in all aspects of your life

• Adults said: Embed working conditions that treat staff with fairness, dignity and respect. 

• Children said: “Make sure everyone is paid enough money to be happy, healthy and safe, and make sure that there aren’t big differences in how much different people get paid”.

• Deliver systematic improvements through fair pay, equality of opportunity, transparency and responsible working practices.

• Encourage staff to treat customers and each other with kindness, in all aspects of their lives.

• Review recruitment and employment processes. Are they a barrier for some people? If so, change them.

Take more and faster action to support nature and the environment, including through tackling climate change

• Take action to reduce environmental impact across your whole supply chain. For example: retailers and manufacturers use less packaging, especially single use plastic and make it possible to recycle more.

• Publish a plan for reducing the environmental impact created by your business. Be transparent about your progress towards that plan.

• Manage any land and buildings to minimise climate impact (e.g. energy efficiency, etc).

Make conscious choices with money

• Prioritise living wage and conditions that support fair work. 

• Evaluate the social and environmental impact of your business and supply chain – including pensions. 

• Maximise positive impact through your purchasing power. Help customers make more conscious choices by showing this impact. 

• Be an active part of your place e.g. local partnerships, training opportunities, and supporting those in need.

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The research conversations were also supported by a commissioned ScotPulse population survey to investigate what effect the Covid-19 pandemic had on people’s thoughts and willingness to take action in their own lives.

The ScotPulse survey found:

• 3 in 4 people (77%) were helping neighbours

• 7 in 10 people (71%) received help from their families and friends

• 7 in 10 people (68%) people gave to charity

• 1 in 10 people say they are going to start volunteering in the local community

• 1 in 12 people say they are going to get to know their neighbours better

• 1 in 20 intend to give more to charity

Research: Does Team Scotland have the right players?

Published 8th October 2020

In 2015 the David Hume Institute published Elitist Scotland? in partnership with the Social Mobility Commission, examining the education diversity of the top decision makers in Scotland.

Five years on we repeated the analysis and increased the scope to investigate gender and ethnicity of the top 708 people in key leadership positions in Scotland. The analysis showed there has been progress in some sectors but others are still lagging behind.

In 2020 analysis of Scotland’s top leaders shows some sectors have made progress towards being more representative of the Scottish population. The Scottish Cabinet and local government Chief Executives are leading the way, however there is much more work to do to improve diversity, especially in the business and legal sector.

With private school students making up just 6% of the Scottish senior school population, Scotland’s top leaders continue to be disproportionately made up from the alumni of fee-paying schools.

In 2015 the percentage of those in leadership positions who were educated at a fee-paying school stood at 23% or nearly one in four. In the last five years this percentage has marginally decreased to 21.3%. 

Currently only 1% of those in leadership positions in Scotland are people of colour.  32% of those in this study are women, and only 2 in the 2020 analysis (0.3 %) are women of colour. No subjects were identified with a disability. 

If change continues at the current rate it will be at least 2065 before people in leadership positions in Scotland are representative of the population. 

Why is this important?

It is now well established that diversity of thought improves an organisation’s performance. The challenges Covid-19 brings mean we need to ensure diversity of thought across all decision making so Scotland is as strong as possible for whatever is the new normal.  

Scotland cannot afford for the pace of change in its top team to continue at the current rate.  More equal societies have higher productivity. And high productivity allows more investment to create more equal societies.

Scotland needs all of our current top leaders to actively champion diversity and proactively provide the opportunities to ensure faster progress. 

What happens now?

The David Hume Institute is committed to equality and diversity of thought - and we know that what gets measured gets done. We will continue to measure this data with the aim of highlighting progress and celebrating those that want to help deliver change at a faster pace.

Briefing paper: The Future Generations Act in Wales and beyond

In 2015 the Welsh Assembly Government passed the Well-being of Future Generations Act and appointed Sophie Howe as the first Future Generations Commissioner for Wales in 2016.

The Commissioner is ‘the guardian of the interests of future generations in Wales’. Her remit is outlined in the 2015 Act and embedded in Welsh law. It aims to improve the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of the people of Wales and ensure that the decisions of today will benefit the future generations of Wales.

A cross party campaign has now been launched, led by Lord Bird, proposing a UK version of the Bill.  

Image credit: sharing thumbnail image by Cristofer Maximilian free licence from Unsplash 3.12.24

Briefing paper: Understanding the Danish Flexicurity Model

In September 2019, the Institute published a report “Who will do the jobs?” which examined the labour market in Scotland.  This report mentioned the recommendation from the Sustainable Growth Commission, that Scotland could learn from the approach Denmark has taken to its labour market.   This briefing examines the Danish labour market and their model of Flexicurity in more detail.

Introduction

Denmark combines high levels of social protection, low levels of unemployment and strong coordination between highly representative trade union and employer confederations.   

However, Denmark’s economic development has been very different from Scotland’s not least in the management of the labour market. Denmark’s modern labour market is the result of numerous policy interventions since the 1960s.  Significant institutional changes would likely be required for Scotland to attempt to replicate the Danish model, regardless of the constitutional position. 

Read the briefing here.

The David Hume Institute would like to thank the following people for their contribution to the production of this briefing:

Stephen Boyle

Martin McCluskey

Mark Mitchell

Image credit: sharing thumbnail image by Markus Winkler free from Unsplash 3.12.24

Report: Who will do the jobs in Scotland?

Current employment rates in Scotland are at a near-record high. However, Scotland’s population is ageing fast and there is a low birth rate.

By 2041, the pension-age population is projected to increase by 265,000, while the working-age population is only projected to rise by 38,000.

This report discusses the challenges facing Scotland with changes to migration patterns and a shortage of workers. What can we do to meet the labour supply challenges in Scotland. Who will do the jobs?

Report: Scotland's Productivity Challenge

Scottish productivity has all but stalled in the last fifteen years and a turnaround is required if future living standards are to improve. This report makes recommendations for government, policymakers, business and trade unions, based on the conclusions of new research and case studies. It details five evidence-based stories of what has worked in comparable places and draws lessons from their experiences. In each case a ruthless focus on evidence, building consensus across the political divide, and developing strong and credible institutions were all necessary to turn things around.

Britain's Decision: Facts and Impartial Analysis for the EU Referendum

The book is edited by Ray Perman, former Director of the David Hume Institute and Charlie Jeffery, Professor of Politics at the University of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Centre on Constitutional Change. It also contains chapters from Professors Michael Keating, Laura Cram, David Bell, Nicola McEwen and Aileen McHarg, among others. It also has a contribution from Andrew Wilson & Kevin Pringle, making the case to remain and from Brian Monteith, putting the case for Brexit.

The David Hume Institute has teamed up with The Hunter Foundation and the Centre on Constitutional Change to produce a free ebook to answer voters’ questions before the EU referendum on June 23. Britain’s Decision – Facts and Impartial Analysis, involves scholars socialising in European affairs from leading universities. They have identified 19 key questions that underpin the debate and they offer objective, independent analysis of these issues. The book is also available as a free download from www.centreonconstitutionalchange.ac.uk and The Hunter Foundation

Elitist Scotland?

Rt. Hon. Alan Milburn Chair, Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission

This report looks at the social background of the people who run Scotland, following up an earlier study carried out by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission looking at this issue for Great Britain as a whole. In partnership with the David Hume Institute and with the support of postgraduate researchers at the University of Edinburgh, we have examined the background of almost 850 leaders in politics, business, the media and other areas of public life in Scotland.

Alan Peacock dissenting…

In the year of the 30th anniversary of the David Hume Institute, it is a deep disappointment to be celebrating without the company of its founder, Sir Alan Peacock, who died last year at the age of 92. On the evidence of the friends and former colleagues who have contributed essays in his memory to new book about his life and work, he would have added culture and humour as well as intellectual stimulation to the occasion.

In the paper he wrote in 1983 proposing the foundation of a new institute he acknowledged that there was no shortage of such bodies already – both inside and outside universities. The gap in the market, he believed, was for an institute which would be independent of government funding, located outside London so that it could take a distinctively non-metropolitan view and unafraid to challenge established thinking.

In proposing that the new institute have ‘a firm intellectual foundation in the study of the links between economics and the law,’ he was not seeking to limit its scope. Indeed, as this book makes clear, his own interests were extraordinarily wide. He was a difficult man to categorise. He started his adult life as a Liberal, but quickly lost sympathy with the Liberal Party. He was an adviser to Labour ministers, but scathing about those who were unwilling to modify their views in the light of the evidence.

He was chosen by Mrs Margaret Thatcher to chair a committee looking at the financing of the BBC, but came back with an answer she neither expected nor wanted. Coming up with the ‘wrong answer’ was something of a Peacock specialism. He characterised the criticism of the cost of one study he undertook as ‘the survey would have been cheap at the price if it had come to the right conclusion.’ He refused to be a ‘gun for hire.’

He chose to name the institute after David Hume because he hoped it would live up to the principles of the great Enlightenment philosopher in ‘proportioning its beliefs to the evidence.’ Thirty years later we aspire still to live up to that principle and also to the standards of Alan Peacock.

The book, Alan Peacock dissenting… contains essays on Alan Peacock’s life and his work as an economist in government, on the constitution, civil justice, the arts, heritage and broadcasting and his role as an academic leader and mentor.

An electronic version can be downloaded free of charge here.

A Kindle version is available from Amazon.