Making Scotland's future - a recovery plan for manufacturing: equality impact assessment

Key Findings

The EQIA process has highlighted that there are existing inequalities in employment in manufacturing with the vast majority (76.6%) of those employed being male. The rate of employment of people from non-White ethnic backgrounds and from non-Christian religious backgrounds is also noticeably lower than that in Scotland's workforce as a whole. There is also evidence to indicate that the manufacturing workforce is older than the Scottish workforce overall.

Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing includes a commitment to Fair Work and Just Transition principles and recognises the need for a vibrant, diverse manufacturing sector to support Scotland's long-term economic recovery.

The actions set out in the plan are designed to support a collaborative and inclusive approach to recovery for the manufacturing sector. The plan includes actions aimed at safeguarding apprenticeships and promoting progressive Fair Work Practices. Through this the plan will provide an opportunity to target people who are underrepresented in the manufacturing workforce.

The public consultation on Making Scotland's Future: A Recovery Plan For Manufacturing, carried out between 4 December 2020 and 12 February 2021, has informed the final plan published in June 2021. A parallel consultation on the draft EQIA provided a wide range of equality stakeholders the opportunity to comment on the impact of the Recovery Plan on people with one or more of the protected characteristics. One response was received to the consultation on the draft EQIA.