Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill Equalities Impact Assessment – Results

Background

Further information about the background and the policy intention behind the Bill and also about the existing temporary Covid legislation is set out in the Policy Memorandum which accompanies the Bill. The Bill, Policy Memorandum and other accompanying documents are available from the Scottish Parliament website and are linked to from this Bill webpage.

The Scottish Government held a full 12-week public consultation on the Bill between August and November 2021. The consultation paper, entitled “Covid Recovery: a consultation on public health, public services and justice system reforms”, was publicised widely and the Scottish Government has published a full consultation analysis report, linked to from this Bill webpage.

Question 37 of the consultation paper referred to above concerned the Equality Impact Assessment and was as follows:

Question 37: Equality impact assessment

Yes I have comments on potential impacts

No

Unsure

I have no view

If you have selected “Yes” please write your comments below. It would be helpful if you could refer to topics of particular interest to you with their topic codes.

354 respondents offered free text responses to this question. Multiple respondents highlighted that digital exclusion could limit participation in proposals involving remote processes. This was felt to be particularly challenging for older people, and people with disabilities, lower incomes, or from an ethnic minority background. A full analysis of the responses to question 37 is included in the full consultation analysis report.

During the parliamentary process for the Extension and Expiry Act, the Deputy First Minister made a commitment to include the voices of disabled people in the consultation for the Bill, to help ensure that their human rights would be adhered to in the Bill. As part of this commitment, the Scottish Government co-hosted an online disability consultation workshop with Disability Equality Scotland on 26 October 2021 and heard from 23 people, including people with lived experience and members/representatives of disability organisations.

The Scottish Government and Disability Equality Scotland worked together to produce an Easy Read resource to help attendees better understand the consultation proposals and participate in the workshop. The Easy Read document summarised the provisions which the Government and disability stakeholders believed would be of most relevance to disabled people. Disability Equality Scotland ensured that the workshop was as accessible as possible, with BSL interpreters and remote captioning available. The viewpoints raised during the workshop were used to support the development of this EQIA and a summary of the discussions is included in the consultation analysis report.