Data collection - protected characteristics: guidance - equality impact assessment

Stage 4: Decision making and monitoring

Identifying and establishing any required mitigating action

Have positive or negative impacts been identified for any of the equality groups?: Yes: Positive impacts for the protected characteristics of age, disability, ethnic group, religion/belief and sexual orientation

Is the policy directly or indirectly discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010^[5]?: No

If the policy is indirectly discriminatory, how is it justified under the relevant legislation?: N/A

If not justified, what mitigating action will be undertaken?: N/A

Describing how Equality Impact analysis has shaped the policy making process

This guidance update is part of a refresh of all guidance notes on questions for gathering data about protected characteristics. The questions will be harmonised with the Scottish 2022 census questions for gathering data on ethnic group, religion/belief, and sexual orientation. The questions will be harmonised with the ONS harmonised standards for gathering data on disability. The questions will be harmonised with the main Scottish household surveys for gathering data on age. This enables continuity and comparability of data across long periods of time and across a range of surveys that use the same and comparable questions.

Harmonisation allows analysts and policy makers to make impactful decisions with a greater wealth of information and within the wider context of the Scotland, which should help develop better outcomes for people and communities with different protected characteristics.

Including information on the disaggregation of data from an intersectionality standpoint will enable better understanding of how protected characteristics combine and how this impacts people, informing the development of better policy and services.

Monitoring and Review

This guidance will be reviewed and refreshed periodically by members of the Equality and Social Justice Analysis Team. The next review should take place following the next census.