Publication - Research and analysis

Coronavirus (COVID-19): impact on equality (research)

Published: 17 September 2020
Topic: Brexit, Children and families, Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Scotland, +9 more … Economy, Education, Energy, Environment and climate change, Equality and rights, Health and social care, Housing, Law and order, Work and skills

This paper reviews emerging evidence on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on equality across several key domains: health, economic, education, safety and security, social and wellbeing, housing, digital, and environmental.

This paper is organised thematically, and each section begins with a discussion of pre-existing inequalities, followed by a discussion on the impact of COVID-19 on inequalities, then concludes with a discussion of the impact of Brexit and other potential future impacts on inequalities.

This thematic structuring should therefore allow readers to easily navigate directly to areas/topics of interest. However, it should be noted that many inequalities are interrelated – health inequalities exacerbate social and economic inequalities, for example, while societal and economic inequalities could impact on inequalities in physical and mental health and wellbeing.

The paper aims to be a useful reference document for policy makers thinking about the equality and Fairer Scotland impacts of their policies, as well as to help inform the various recovery and renewal work being undertaken.

To ensure greater accessibility, Large Print, Easy Read and British Sign Language (BSL) formats of the executive summary have been made available alongside this report. Other translations of the executive summary can be made available upon request by contacting social-justice-analysis@gov.scot.

British Sign Language (2 part video):