Genomics in Scotland strategy: equality impact assessment

Recommendations and Conclusion

There is currently no evidence to indicate that the strategy would impact negatively on the nine protected characteristics or socio-economic considerations. It is anticipated that the strategy would impact positively through the expansion of genomic testing and the development of infrastructure and systems needed to allow Scotland to take full advantage of developments in genomic medicine. Central to these efforts is to ensure that genomic information is available and understood across healthcare services and is embedded within Scotland’s national data ecosystem.

There is potential for unintended discrimination, particularly in terms of accessibility requirements and recognised biases within genomic reference data and literature. This will be kept under review throughout the lifetime of the strategy so that mitigations can be put in place where necessary and where possible.