Equality Impact Assessments

Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 imposes a duty any public body to have due regard, in the exercise of its functions, to the need to
a) eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under this Act;
b) advance equality of opportunity between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it;
c) foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and persons who do not share it.

This is known as the general public sector equality duty.

In 2012 the Scottish Government adopted the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations which laid out a number of statutory duties for public bodies in Scotland. These specific public sector equality duties were designed to assist public bodies in meeting their general duties and they include the duties to:

• where and to the extent required to fulfil the general equality duty, assess the impact of applying a proposed new or revised policy or practice against the needs of the general equality duty;
• in making the assessment, consider relevant evidence relating to persons who share a protected characteristic (including any evidence received from those persons);
• in developing a policy or practice, take account of the results of any assessment in respect of that policy or practice;
• publish, within a reasonable period, the results of any assessment where it decides to apply the policy or practice in question;
• make arrangements to review and where necessary revise any policy or practice that it applies in the exercise of its functions.

The EIAs are summarised in the committee reports and published as part of the papers for the committee meetings where relevant for the decision making process. From August 2021 these are being tracked for monitoring purposes.

View our completed assessments use the following links - 

April 2022 - March 2023

April 2023 - March 2024

April 2024 - March 2025