Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 - accredited body fees and discounting proposals: partial equality impact assessment

6. Stage 4: Decision making and monitoring

6.1 Identifying and establishing any required mitigating action

If, following the impact analysis, you think you have identified any unlawful discrimination – direct or indirect - you must consider and set out what action will be undertaken to mitigate the negative impact. You will need to consult your legal team in SGLD at this point if you have not already done so.

Have positive or negative impacts been identified for any of the equality groups?

Moving to a fee discount from a fee waiver in relation to volunteers in qualifying voluntary organisations will have a negative impact on volunteers, however, evidence does not show that it has a higher or specific negative impact on any equality groups. There is conflicting evidence on what age groups are more likely to be volunteering in specific scenarios.

Marginal positive impacts have been identified for some equality groups as a result of policy development targeted at addressing socio-economic disadvantage and a history of care-experience.

Disclosure Scotland will continue to assess views and new evidence as we collaborate with stakeholders on the next steps of policy development.

Is the policy directly or indirectly discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010^[3]?

It is neither directly or indirectly discriminatory.

If the policy is indirectly discriminatory, how is it justified under the relevant legislation?

N/A

If not justified, what mitigating action will be undertaken?

N/A

6.2 Describing how Equality Impact analysis has shaped the policy making process

At this point in policy development, the equality impact analysis has had a limited impact on the policy development. This record must be read alongside the partial Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment and Fairer Scotland Duty assessment summary to understand how impact assessment and evidence gathering has shaped development of policy options to this point.

We anticipate further development of the policies from collaboration with stakeholders and consultation will result in further equality analysis and making any required changes to the policy as proposed. We will use existing stakeholder networks and promotion through colleagues working with equality partners to encourage engagement. Disclosure Scotland is also holding a number of public events alongside the formal consultation to encourage direct engagement and capture views.

6.3 Monitoring and Review

These policies remain in development. Upon completion of the final EQIA for the policy, we will complete a monitoring and review plan including establishing routes to measure progress on equality issues.