Equality and Human Rights

The Equality Act 2010 Public Sector Equality Duty requires public authorities, in the exercise of their functions, to have due regard to the need to:

• Eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and other prohibited conduct;
• Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not; and
• Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

The Public Sector Equality Duty covers the following protected characteristics: age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and sexual orientation. The Public Sector Equality Duty also covers marriage and civil partnerships, with regard to eliminating unlawful discrimination in employment. These functions include those concerned with service provision and with employment.

Scottish Specific Duties

The specific duties in Scotland were created by secondary legislation in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012. Statutory specific equality duties for Scotland came into force on 27th May 2012. The eight components are:

• Publish equality outcomes and report progress every two years
• Report on mainstreaming the equality duty every two years
• Assess and review policies and practices
• Gather and use employee information, and publish in the mainstreaming report
• Publish gender pay gap information and report progress every two years
• Publish statements on equal pay at four year intervals
• Consider award criteria and conditions in relation to public procurement
• Publish in a manner that is accessible.

We are an agency of the Scottish Government and some of our reporting requirements under the Equality Act 2010 Public Sector Equality Duty have been incorporated into the Scottish Government's information. The documents we publish can be found on our Publications page.

Copies in alternative formats and community languages will be made available on request. Please email: [email protected]

Equality & Human Right Impact Assessments (EHRIAs) support us to meet the statutory duties imposed under the Equality Act 2010. They are the thorough and systematic analysis of a new/revised policy/practice to determine whether they have a differential impact on a particular group in relation to equality, diversity and human rights.

This means that consideration of equality and human rights issues must influence the decisions we reach - such as in how we act as employers; how we develop, evaluate and review policy; how we design, deliver and evaluate services, and how we commission and procure from others. In short, we use EHRIA's to ensure that our policies and practices do what they intend, for everyone.

To further our Vision for equality and adopt a human rights-based approach in all areas of our work, in 2014 we implemented an integrated approach to conducting impact assessments which includes consideration of human rights and social and economic disadvantage. We believe that such that an inter-disciplinary approach to assessing new/revised policy/practice is best practice and the best use of resources. Doing so also enables us to contribute to the Scottish Government National Outcome to tackle the significant inequalities in Scottish society.

We recognise the value of involvement and of ensuring that those with the ‘lived experience’ help to shape our policies and practices. In carrying out EHRIAs we regularly involve staff from our equality networks (covering issues relating to LGBT, women and disability), external stakeholders and equality organisations.