How poorly did Fife Council rate when 29 Scottish local authority’s were ranked?

The data revealed a huge variation in public service performance across the country with some councils recycling twice as much as others, while some residents are half as likely to have their first cancer treatment within 62 days as those in other areas.

The rankings used 11 indicators from five key categories - education, health, community, policing and finance - and weighting was applied by population size and the importance of each category, with health and education deemed the most important.

Fife was rated 28th out of 29th local authorities. Three councils, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands and the Western Isles, were scored separately because of a huge variation in population size and different methods of data collection. The Kingdom finished behind Aberdeen City in 27th, East Lothian 26th, and North Lanarkshire in 25th position. Its best score was for crime where it was rated 19th, and its worst was for finance where it came 25th. Fife was also rated 21st for education, 24th for health, and 22nd for community.

Highland Council, the largest local authority by area in the UK, emerged as having the worst public services in Scotland, ranking ranked bottom for both health and education, and also performed poorest for literacy. East Renfrewshire came top for education and community.

Ayrshire was a strong performer with North Ayrshire, East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire council areas all in the final top 10. The best performing area for crime was Aberdeenshire.

Three councils, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands and the Western Isles, were excluded from these rankings and scored separately because of a huge variation in population size and different methods of data collection.

Magnus Llewellin, editor of The Times and Sunday Times Scotland: “We all understand that where you live has a huge bearing on your quality of life. But quantifying those differences across areas such as health, education, community and crime isn’t readily available for readers.

“That is why the Sunday Times has carried out this analysis across Scotland. It gives people a measure of the differences which, in a number of cases, are stark.”

Fife Council’s executive director for communities Michael Enston said: “These rankings have been compiled from a very limited set of indicators, many of which are not within the control of the council. Fife’s position on this table does not reflect the range of services the council provides, or how it is performing relative to other councils in Scotland.

“When we do look comprehensively, we get a more representative picture. The current position with LGBF Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF), data published for 2022/23 shows 57% of Fife indicators in the top two quartiles, reflecting improved performance over time.”