Scotland's equality evidence strategy 2017-2021

5. Background

In response to the EHRC's Is Scotland Fairer report ^[1] which called for improvement to the equality evidence base, the Fairer Scotland Action Plan ^[2] committed the Scottish Government to publishing an Equality Evidence Strategy based on consultation with equality groups and other stakeholders, setting out how it is going to improve equality evidence and analysis in Scotland.

Other Scottish Government strategies, such as the Race Equality Framework ^[3] and A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People ^[4] , also outline actions for improved data.

In addition, Scotland's draft Budget has been accompanied by an Equality Budget Statement ^[5] ( EBS) since 2009. Equality assessment throughout the budget process helps the Scottish Government to arrive at informed decisions and to make the best judgements about how to target government resources. The EBS ensures that, as far as possible, the equality impacts of the spending decisions set out are understood. In order to continuously improve the EBS and develop high quality assessment there is a continuing need to improve the equality evidence base.