Cancer strategy 2023-2033 and cancer action plan 2023-2026: monitoring and evaluation framework - August 2023

Appendix 3: Strategic work in development to improve equalities data

In April 2021, the Scottish Government launched the Equality Data Improvement Programme (EDIP) to strengthen the equality evidence base through the sharing of learning and good practice, and through priority data development projects. To date, key outputs of the EDIP include the publication of updated guidance on the collection of equality data and an evidence synthesis to improve understanding of intersectionality and how it can be applied.

In March 2023, the Scottish Government published Scotland's Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025, marking the conclusion of the first phase of the EDIP. The strategy sets out a refreshed vision, along with a comprehensive three-year improvement plan. Alongside completing the specific actions set out in this strategy, Scottish Government analysts will continue to improve disaggregated and intersectional equality data collected through survey and administrative sources and present this evidence in their own analytical outputs and on the Equality Evidence Finder. These equality data improvements will be driven forward throughout the lifetime of the Equality Evidence Strategy. The full list of commitments from Health and Social Care in the EDIP is available in Annex D: Tables of Actions to Improve the Equality Evidence Base - Scotland's Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025.

On women's health data, there is a commitment in the EDIP to improve the quality and availability of data on women's health. This looks at identifying data gaps, ascertaining women's health data needs, identifying what barriers exist, and what data collection practices need to change to improve the availability and quality of data in this area. The work has already produced research findings such as this publication on Women's Experiences of Discrimination and the Impact on Health.

Work is also progressing on improving the ethnicity data held by Health and Social Care. Public Health Scotland recently published their second annual report on Monitoring Racialised Health Inequalities in Scotland: Data and Evidence and the Scottish Government recently published its Anti-racism in Scotland: Progress Review 2023 with a chapter on Health and Housing within that report.