Single-use disposable beverage cups charge: equality impact assessment – interim report - easy read

Scottish Government Charging for single use cups Equality Impact Assessment - Easy Read

What is an Equality Impact Assessment?

Equality Impact Assessments are ways to make sure people are treated fairly and equally by work policies and decisions.

This document is an interim assessment.

This means it is not the final version.

The Scottish Government wants to make new rules that suppliers of beverages in single-use disposable beverage cups to charge a minimum amount for such cups.

A supplier is the person or organisation that are selling you the drink in a single use cup.

The policy wants to:

• make sure people use single use cups less
• reduce the harm it causes to the environment

This Equality Impact Assessment looks at who could be affected by a charge on single use cups.

A charge may affect some people with protected characteristics more than others.

A protected characteristic is one that is covered by the law called the Equality Act.

You can find out more about protected characteristics in this Easy Read document.

The most important things we have found out

The charge may affect people differently.

We think the charge could unfairly affect disabled people who may rely on buying drinks in single use cups when away from home.

Getting a reusable cup or using it on their own might not be easy for disabled people

This would not support independent living.

This could result in higher costs for people who need to keep using single use cups.

We will communicate with more disabled people during the consultation period:

• to check how the charge could affect them
• to decide how their information would affect the final policy

The charge could unfairly affect people who do not have much money coming into their household like:

• parents in single parent households

• young or old people

We do not yet know how much this would affect these people but we are working with people now to help us understand this better.

Reusable cups are available at different prices.

Some will last longer than others so they will have different levels of value for money.

The charge could affect some people who do not have English as their first language.

We will make sure we have accessible and inclusive communication when we tell people about the charge.

Using reusable cups means there will be less litter.

This is good for all age groups but may be a bigger benefit for younger people aged 16 to 24.

They are more likely to think badly about their area if it has a lot of litter.

If we encourage young people to use reusable cups it helps them:

• to learn about looking after the environment
• to make good choices that help everyone.

The equality outcomes in this summary have link with the effects detailed in the:

• interim Fairer Scotland Duty Assessment
• interim Island Communities Impact Assessment

Recommendations and conclusion

A recommendation is what we think should happen.

There are several evidence gaps in the interim EQIA.

Evidence is information that proves something is true.

The consultation period will be used to:

• speak to more people and groups about these issues

• get more facts, figures and information about the evidence that is missing

This EQIA will be updated after the public consultation.