Equality and diversity
Overview
We process information about protected characteristics (disability status, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and transgender status, age and sex) of people employed by NHS Scotland and publish statistics about these characteristics to assist with equalities monitoring and reporting.
How and what data are collected?
Sex and date of birth are collected for all staff in post. For sex, the options available are Male or Female. Age group is calculated from date of birth.
Data on disability status, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and transgender are collected for all staff in post directly employed by NHS Scotland. These data 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.
What data are published?
The data are used to calculate the composition of the workforce for each characteristic, such as the proportion of staff per ethnic group as a percentage of the total number of staff in a board or across NHS Scotland. As an example, in the year ending March 2023, 32.1% of NHS Scotland staff self-reported as having no religion:
Bar chart for Religion for Year ending 31 March 2023 from Official Statistics for NHSScotland Workforce (captured 24 January 2025).
Data about age group, sex, sexual orientation, transgender status, ethnicity, religion and disability status are published in the Official Statistics publications for the NHSScotland Workforce. These are available to view from https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/data-and-reports/official-workforce-statistics/?pageid=1243.
Demographic data (sex and age group) are published quarterly in the Employment – demographic section. Data about disability status, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and transgender status of staff in post on 31 March each year are available in the Equality and diversity section.
Equality and diversity data are also shared in management information reports to support equalities reporting to Scottish Government.
The data published are suppressed for statistical control reasons: when the number of people in the characteristic is less than 5, the percentage value is not displayed.
Equality and diversity questionnaire
The current questions and answer options in the staff questionnaire are as follows. Where there is no answer provided, this is counted as “Declined”.
- 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.
