Chamber and committees

We move on to questions from Marie McNair.

Good morning, and welcome to the seventh meeting in 2025 of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. We have no apologies.

Our first item is to agree whether to take in private item 4, which is consideration of our approach to the civil legal aid inquiry. Do members agree to take item 4 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Pam, do you have any more questions before we move on?

We move on to questions from Tess White.

Pam Gosal has a supplementary question.

Item 2 is evidence on the operation of the public sector equality duty in Scotland. The PSED is a legal requirement for public authorities in Scotland. Under the duty, they must consider equality when carrying out their functions. The Scottish Government is making reforms to the duty, and the inquiry is an opportunity to explore those reforms and consider how they might improve the delivery of the duty.

We will hear from two panels of witnesses this morning. I welcome the first, which is made up of Clare Gallagher, human rights officer at the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations Scotland; Jatin Haria, executive director at the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights; Lindsey Millen, head of policy and development at Close the Gap, who joins us remotely; and Jill Wood, policy manager at Engender, who also joins us remotely. You are all very welcome—thank you for attending.

I refer members to papers 1 and 2. Before beginning the session, I remind all members that rule 7.5.1 of the Parliament’s standing orders prevents members from referring to any matter in relation to which legal proceedings are active, except to the extent permitted by the Presiding Officer. I advise members that Sandie Peggie’s employment tribunal case against NHS Fife is considered to be active for the purposes of the sub judice rule and contempt of court. I have sought and received permission from the Presiding Officer about the extent to which we can explore matters related to the case today and throughout the course of the PSED inquiry. On the basis of that permission, questions about issues connected to the case will be admissible today, but questions about the specifics of the case will not.

We will now move on to questions. I will start us off. To what extent do the witnesses think that public authorities understand the terms and aims of the PSED in Scotland? I will come to you first, Clare.

Do members wish to ask any other questions before I end this part of the meeting?

Members: No.

I thank our witnesses for their evidence. I will suspend the meeting briefly to allow a change of witnesses.

We will move on to questions from Evelyn Tweed.

We move on to questions from Evelyn Tweed.