National Advisory Council on Women and Girls (NACWG) 2019 - report and recommendations: SG response

Foreword: First Minister

The first report from the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls was as bold and ambitious as I had hoped when I appointed the Advisory Council in 2017. Its recommendations are challenging the Scottish Government to do more to tackle gender inequality and make Scotland a more equal place for women and girls.

I am pleased with the progress we have made to deliver the Advisory Council's 2018 recommendations, including creating a Gender Equality Taskforce in Education and Learning chaired by the Deputy First Minister, the work of the National Taskforce on Human Rights Leadership which is initiating the incorporation of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women into Scots Law, and our work to ensure that victims of sexual crimes receive justice and the support that they need.

In January 2020, the Advisory Council published its second report on the topic of Policy Coherence with recommendations aimed at transforming how gender equality is woven into the fabric of policy making across the Scottish Government and the wider public sector. The COVID-19 pandemic has driven home that the policies and decisions we make must be shaped by a sound understanding of equality and human rights, and this is vital to ensuring that we leave no one behind.

I am therefore pleased to accept the NACWG's latest report and its recommendations. We have established a new Directorate for Equality, Inclusion & Human Rights, and as part of our 2020/21 Programme for Government we have committed to developing a renewed and ambitious equality and human rights mainstreaming strategy, underpinned by a comprehensive approach to improving data collation and analysis, and by work to ensure that the voices of those impacted shape our approach and policies.

There is still much more to do and we will continue to work with the NACWG to further shape this work as it progresses.