Keeping Scotland Safe and Strong - A Consultation on Reforming Police and Fire and Rescue Services in Scotland: Analysis of Consultation Responses

ANNEX 2: VIEWS ON THE PARTIAL EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Question 27: Do you have any comments on the partial Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA)? Are there any other potential impacts to consider?

29 respondents from the following respondent categories addressed this question.

Note: Abbreviations used in the above table are described in Table 1.

Of these, 5 urged that a full Equality Impact Assessment be undertaken and widely consulted on. One respondent (LA) remarked that each local plan must also be subject to assessment.

The theme which prevailed throughout many responses from police and fire bodies was that centralisation of functions should not impact to the detriment of local partnerships, specialist services, collaborations and local solutions which have all emerged in relation to local equality issues.

Another common theme was that a likely reduction in support staff will have greatest impact on women, who could face reduced employment opportunities, and also find their options restricted on account of the proposed centralised location of support functions.

Other comments which were made by 2 or more respondents were:

• Rather than training staff in British Sign Language (BSL) the new services should make use of fully qualified BSL specialists.
• Keeping a database of staff members with disabilities (as suggested in the EQIA) will be impractical.
• Fatal road traffic accidents affect 17 - 25 year olds disproportionately. Tackling this requires the consideration of shared working across fire and police services.
• A reduced workforce size could reduce the overall diversity of the workforce.