Scotland's National Strategy for Economic Transformation: equality position statement

6. What we will do

In its response^[12] to the report^[13] of the independent Advisory Group on Economic Recovery in August 2020, the Scottish Government committed to strengthen its focus on tackling inequalities and wellbeing to create a socially just economy. It proposed the creation of a Centre of Expertise to work across the economy portfolio, with a purpose to: i) further develop our understanding and evidence base on equality and human rights and the economy; (ii) ensure we identify and capitalise on opportunities to advance equality and human rights consistently across our programmes; and (iii) build wider capacity to embed skills and understanding across the economy portfolio.

NSET's 'Fairer and More Equal Society' Programme of Action confirms the commitment in the Scottish Government's Economic Recovery Implementation Plan, setting out an action to establish a Centre of Expertise in Equality and Human Rights within the Scottish Government, advancing our understanding and embedding equality and human rights within the economic policy-making process.

To deliver NSET's transformational programmes in a way that maximises opportunities to advance equality and human rights, we will take the following actions:

• Evidence base – economy analysts are contributing to the Scottish Government Equality Data Improvement Programme, to improve the quality of equality data that is available to use in policy development, implementation and monitoring.
• Building capacity – an equality and human rights-needs analysis will be conducted across the Economy portfolio to identify the additional capacity and training required to support policy areas in designing, developing and implementing NSET actions with full consideration for equality and human rights. Economy officials will work with officials in the Directorate for Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights and stakeholders to construct and deliver a training programme to upskill policy officials.
• Advancing equality and human rights consistently – building on work to strengthen the evidence base and increase knowledge and understanding of equality and human rights among economic policy officials, full equality impact assessments will be undertaken on the policy commitments and actions outlined in the NSET as they are developed and implemented. This will be informed by the evidence contained in this Position Statement and the Evidence Paper which, alongside the stakeholder engagement and semi-formal consultation, underpinned NSET development.