As the democratically elected voice of the Outer Hebrides, the Comhairle advocates strongly for the Islands, lobbying and providing leadership on strategic issues. This has been evident in recent times on issues such as the Islands Act, the Islands Growth Deal, ferry, air, broadband and mobile connectivity, key capital projects such as the Deep-Water Terminal in Stornoway, Barra and Vatersay Community Campus, and on public sector reform. To retain this influence, we must have sufficient funding to sustain and develop our services and to have control over how the money is spent.

As an inclusive local authority, we work closely with our communities through engagement and empowerment and our Elected Members are well known and visible within their ward areas. As we enhance our commitment to community engagement, we are keen to engage our communities actively both digitally and face to face and to do further work on participatory budgeting.    Our commitments are to:

• Ensure that local people and communities are empowered and are at the heart of our decision making;
• Reduce our carbon footprint and deliver the Climate Change Strategy;
• Support equality of opportunity;
• Deliver efficient and effective services to our customers; and
• Ensure effective governance of the Comhairle

A Suite of KPIs  was selected to provide a consistent basis for the Comhairle to assess if the outcomes of people in the Western Isles are improving over time and support data-driven decision making. The published 2022/23 data for the majority of the statistics is not yet available due to a lag in the publication of data. For reference, the Official statistics: forthcoming publications provides a 12-month calendar of statistical releases.