Post-school education, research and skills - purpose and principles: equality impact assessment - draft

Stage 1: Framing

Public Sector Equality Duty Requirements

The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between different people when carrying out their activities. The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (regulation 5) requires that a listed public authority must make such arrangements as it considers appropriate to review and, where necessary, revise any policy or practice that it applies in the exercise of its functions to ensure that, in exercising those functions, it complies with the Equality Duty. The Scottish Government meets its obligations under Regulation 5 by requiring equality impact assessments (EQIAs) to be carried out for all policies and practices. By undertaking an EQIA as part of the process of developing the Purpose and Principles, the Scottish Government has sought to demonstrate "due regard" to the Equality Duty of eliminating discrimination, promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations. As we progress with the development of the projects the EQIA will be revised in line with changes made. As the implementation of the Purpose and Principles develops, more detailed EQIAs for specific policy decisions in the future are recommended.

Results of framing exercise

In addition to our broad stakeholder engagement, we held 2 workshops to support the framing exercise with a range of policy leads across SG to consider impacts of the Purpose and Principles for post-school education, research and skills. The results from the evidence gathering, policy framing exercise and stakeholder engagement can be found in the data and evidence gathering table below.

Extent/Level of EQIA required

An EQIA will be conducted for the Purpose and Principles to consider the impacts it will have on those with protected characteristics. As future specific policy decisions arise from the Purpose and Principles implementation, we recommend that a full and detailed EQIA is taken to understand the impacts for those with protected characteristics and their intersectionalities.