Equality and diversity

Data source

Information about protected characteristics (disability status, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and transgender status, age and sex) is collected for employees of NHS Scotland to assist with equalities monitoring and reporting.

Data reported are based on self-reporting by staff in NHS Scotland. Data are collected via staff engagement forms when people join or change boards within NHS Scotland, or via the e:you questionnaire exercise undertaken for all NHS Scotland staff in post. Completion of the questionnaire exercise is optional, and response rates vary across the country. The questionnaire questions are detailed below.

Sex and date of birth are recorded for all staff in post. For sex, the options available are Male or Female. Age group is calculated from date of birth.

This data is recorded in eESS.

Methods

The current questions and answer options in the staff questionnaire are as follows. Where there is no answer provided, the response is recorded as “Not known”.

Disabled: The question asked is: “Do you have a condition/disability that has lasted/may last 12 months or more?” and the answer can be selected from: Yes, No, Don’t know, Prefer not to say.
Ethnic Group: The question asked is: “What is your ethnic group?” and the answer can be selected from a list of options including specified ethnic groups (such as White – Scottish or Asian – Indian, Indian Scottish or Indian British), Mixed or Multiple Ethnic Group, Other, Don’t know and Prefer not to say.
Religion: The question asked is: “What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?” and the answer can be selected from a list of options including named religions (such as Church of Scotland or Buddhist), No religion, Other, Don’t know and Prefer not to say.
Sexual Orientation: The question asked is: “Which of the following options best describes how you think of yourself?” and the answer can be selected from a list of options including Bisexual, Gay or Lesbian, Heterosexual, Other, Don’t know and Prefer not to say.
Transgender: The question asked is: “Have you, are you or do you plan to undergo gender reassignment (changing sex)?” and the answer can be selected from: Yes, No, Don’t know, Prefer not to say.

From 2023, equality and diversity data are extracted for NHS Scotland workforce at 31 March from SWISS using the same inclusion criteria for the employment extracts. The data are extracted on the second Tuesday after the 31 March, and then loaded into the data warehouse, where they are linked with employment data.

From 2026, equality and diversity data are now extracted from eESS as part of the NHS Scotland employment processes.

What data are published?

The data are used to calculate the composition of the workforce for each characteristic, such as the percentage of staff in each ethnic group in a board or NHS Scotland.

The data published are suppressed for statistical control reasons: when the number of people in the characteristic is less than five, the percentage value is not displayed.

Data quality

The data is generally of poor quality, as there is a high percent of unknown for many categories.