Race equality: immediate priorities plan

2. Review of Scottish Government Race Equality Actions

Following the conclusion of the REAP in 2021, the Scottish Government commissioned a review of our race equality initiatives since 2000. The Coalition on Racial Equality and Rights (CRER) was commissioned to conduct this review.

The conclusion of the review welcomed the Scottish Government’s focus on effective, anti-racist policy-making, whilst noting that a key challenge for policy-makers was how to build systems and structures in Scotland that work against structural and systemic racism. The review found that many of Scotland’s race equality policies have not always translated into tangible, improved outcomes for minority ethnic Scots. Anti-racism – that is, seeing racism as a structural issue - must be firmly embedded in organisational culture and practice in order to start tackling the roots of racism.

The Scottish Government recognises the need for deep and lasting change as part of our anti-racist policy-making, that builds in the time needed for capacity-building and data-gathering, and engagement with those with lived experience. These will be foundational principles for the strategic review and the way forward outlined in section 9.

The IPP seeks to maintain momentum by providing an interim framework that captures outcomes, enabling tracking and reporting for the anti-racist work progressing across the Scottish Government. Interim governance mechanisms and arrangements will be implemented as part of the IPP so that the work is open to scrutiny and ongoing learning is captured.