Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018
50.Paragraph 5 of the schedule adds the Bank to the list of bodies in schedule 1 of the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Act 2018. This means that in appointing the Bank’s non-executive directors, the Scottish Ministers must give preference to a woman if there are equally qualified candidates of either gender and appointing a woman would result in, or be a step towards, 50% of the directors being women (see section 4 of the Gender Representation Act). In addition, the Gender Representation Act requires that steps be taken to encourage women to apply to be non-executive directors of the Bank (see section 5), and further steps to be taken to promote gender balance amongst the Bank’s directors if the 50% target has not been reached by particular dates (see section 6).