Key projects in Scotland

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Scotland Programme 2015/16

In addition to the work we contribute to at a GB level (outlined in our Business Plan), the Scotland Committee has agreed a number of priority areas for action in 2015/16.

  • PSED: we will continue to promote, monitor, and regulate the Public Sector Equality Duty so that the duties and equality impact assessments result in improved decisions and services. Recent work in this area has included:
  • Constitutional change: through public engagement and expert consultation, we will identify the principles any future constitutional settlement should adopt to ensure that human rights obligations and aspirations for equality are fully realised.
  • Transfer of Expertise: the legal team will further develop a programme which will expand access to better quality advice on discrimination and human rights law, help public authorities to carry out their functions in a way that better meets their Public Sector Equality Duties and increase the referral of legal cases and use of our second tier advice service.
  • Engage directly with businesses in Scotland: We will promote our Employer Guidance and our work on rights in pregnancy and maternity including producing case studies to assist employers in recognising what discrimination at work can look like; we will transfer the recommendations from the Commission’s Inquiry into the meat processing sector to the fisheries and food processing industries in Scotland.
  • Responding to prejudice-based bullying in schools: In March 2015 the Equality and Human Rights Commission published research into the scale and impact of prejudice-based bullying in Scottish secondary schools. The research, based on findings from 1,250 pupils and 330 teachers, concludes that procedures for supporting pupils being bullied could be improved. One in four of the pupils surveyed said that they were aware of peers in their school experiencing prejudice-based bullying, while just over half of pupils who had themselves experienced bullying said they had reported it to their school. The most commonly experienced forms of prejudice-based bullying included race, disability, sexual orientation and perceived socio-economic status. This assignment will build on the research recommendations and how they can be taken forward.

We will also continue to fulfill our core functions, making the best use of reduced resources through restructuring and changing the way we work to deliver on these priorities.

Previous Scotland project work

Last Updated: 10 Jun 2015