At its meeting on 29 March 2022, the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee considered the following instrument:

• The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 [draft]

The instrument is subject to the affirmative procedure (Rule 10.6).

The draft SSI was laid before the Scottish Parliament on 21 February 2022 and referred to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee.

The purpose of this instrument is to apply the Scottish specific equalities duties, as set out in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (as amended), to Environmental Standards Scotland (“ESS”).

The UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Act 2021 (“the 2021 Act”) established ESS and sets out its functions and powers – namely, to monitor public authorities’ compliance with environmental law and the effectiveness of environmental law and of how it is implemented and applied.

The purpose of this instrument is to list ESS in the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 (as amended) (“the 2012 Regulations”), making ESS subject to the equalities duties in the 2012 Regulations. These duties include:

• assessing the impact of new or revised policies or practices on the needs set out in the public sector equality duty;

• publishing equality outcomes and reporting on progress on meeting those outcomes;

• reporting on mainstreaming equality;

• publishing information on the gender pay gap and equal pay;

• gathering employee information in relation to protected characteristics and using this information to better perform the public sector equality duty; and

• taking account of the public sector equality duty in the context of procurement.

This instrument also makes provision for the time periods within which certain duties must be complied with.

The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee (DPLR) considered the instrument at its meeting on 1 March 2022. The DPLR Committee agreed that it did not need to draw the Parliament’s attention to the instrument on any grounds within its remit.

It is for the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee to recommend to the Parliament whether the instrument should be approved.

The Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport ("the Cabinet Secretary"), Michael Matheson MSP, has, by motion S6M-03277 proposed that the Committee recommends the approval of the instrument.

The Committee took evidence from the Cabinet Secretary at its meeting on 29 March 2022.

Following the evidence session, the Cabinet Secretary moved motion S6M-03277—That the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee recommends that The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 [draft] be approved.

The motion was agreed to without division or dissent.