West Lothian Citizens Panel
West Lothian Citizens Panel was established in 1999 and is supported by the Community Planning Partnership. The panel was set up to help identify people's views on various aspects relating to living in West Lothian.
The Council and its partners - organisations like NHS Lothian, Police Scotland, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, West Lothian College and the Voluntary Sector know it is important to become more knowledgeable about local people's views and opinions about a whole range of issues relating to living in West Lothian. The Citizens Panel is one way that local people can express their views.
Membership of the panel is on a voluntary basis. Individuals are either invited onto the Panel through random selection or can request to be involved themselves. The panel is refreshed every three years to ensure that it is representative of the West Lothian population and to give other West Lothian residents the opportunity to take part. The panel was last refreshed in 2016 and now has around 2800 members. The demographic profile of the panel indicates that is is representative of the West Lothian population in terms of age, gender, tenure, ethnicity and multi-member ward. Work is now underway to refresh the panel once again, to ensure that new members are recruited to the panel, and that it represents the population of West Lothian at this time.
Quality of Life Survey
Quality of Life surveys are carried out with the panel every 3 years. This survey asks a wide range of questions around a whole range of issues about life in West Lothian. Topics covered include West Lothian's economy, community safety, health, travel and the environment. The last Quality of Life Survey [663KB] was carried out in 2016.
A report [1MB] of the results of the Quality of Life Survey has been developed, which details the findings from the survey.