Scotland’s Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025

5. Engagement with stakeholders in developing this strategy

Between July and October 2022 the Scottish Government carried out a public consultation on Citizen Space on a draft plan to improve and strengthen Scotland's equality evidence base. The consultation received 116 responses from a range of equality advocacy organisations, public sector bodies and individuals. An analysis of the consultation was carried out by an independent research consultancy, Why Research. The full report can be found in Annex C.

The consultation asked 32 questions (including 6 questions in the Respondent Information Form), broken down as follows: 15 closed questions (e.g. inviting yes/no/don't know responses; with multiple choice options) and 17 open questions (inviting a free text response option: e.g. explain your answer, any other comments). The consultation had four sections:

• section 1: asked for views on the vision for equality data improvement over the period 2023-2025
• section 2: asked for views on the proposed improvement actions
• section 3: asked when and how equality evidence is used and any barriers faced
• section 4: asked who is producing equality evidence and any barriers faced

To promote and supplement the consultation the Scottish Government Equality Analysis team also ran a series of stakeholder engagement events in August and September 2022. There were around 200 attendees across the events from a number of public sector and equality advocacy organisations.

Alongside feedback on each action in the draft plan, key cross-cutting findings from the consultation and events included:

• there was general agreement on the need for a strong evidence base upon which services can be designed and decisions and policy can be made
• respondents welcomed opportunities to improve the equality evidence base and acknowledged the need for more data on specific groups. The need for intersectionality along with a capacity to disaggregate data were key for many respondents
• qualitative data was seen as providing valuable information in its own right, as well as helping to enhance understanding of quantitative data
• there were calls for help and guidance for data users to maximise their understanding of how to understand and analyse data, as well as how to use this effectively in decision-making
• there were some comments on the terminology used and the conflation of different terms
• the Equality Evidence Finder was seen to be a useful tool, although there were some comments on a need to improve its utility, for example, by improving upon its accessibility, and by ensuring that all data are up-to-date