Report Summary
As a public body, SPA has a specific duty to publish relevant information to demonstrate our compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), part of the Equality Act 2010. We publish information relating to our recruitment practices and information about employees who share protected characteristics from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.
To access the full document please open the PDF document above.
To view as accessible content please use the sections below. (Note that some tables and appendixes are not available as accessible content).
Religion or Belief
The majority of people in Scotland said they had no religion in response to the 2022 census. The percentage of people with no religion also increased across all age groups since the 2011 census.
The table below indicates that there has been limited change in our workforce profile since our last report in 2023 when considering religion or belief.
There are no meaningful conclusions which can be drawn based upon this data although the long-term data shows that those who have no religious beliefs continues to increase.
75% of our new employees in 2024 declared that they have no religious beliefs. There were no results for chose not to say meaning every new start chose to disclose. In comparison, in the 2023 report 2.13% of new starts chose not to disclose.
In terms of leavers, 19% chose not to disclose information relating to religion or belief. This is an increase from 2023 when the figure for CNTD was 4%.
There have been only minor changes in the religion profile in recent years with analysis from 2014 onwards showing no meaningful change in relation to specific religious beliefs, however, over this period we have seen a continued increase in those with no religious beliefs, increasing from 41% in 2014 to the 56.88% figure reported for 2024.
Through engagement with diversity staff associations, trades unions and consideration of relevant research and evidence, we will continue to seek to understand the views of those from different faith backgrounds.
