Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Official Report 561KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 [Draft]

Item 2 is consideration of an affirmative instrument. I welcome to the meeting Michael Matheson, the Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero, Energy and Transport. He is accompanied by Scottish Government officials Euan O’Neill, lawyer, and Charles Stewart Roper, head of environmental governance and strategy unit, future environment division. I refer members to paper?1 and invite the?cabinet secretary to?speak to?the regulations.

Thank you, convener, and good morning, everyone. The Scottish statutory instrument that you are considering is routine. It concerns the application of the Scotland-specific equalities duties to the new environmental governance body, Environmental Standards Scotland.

As ESS is established as a non-ministerial body—it is part of the Scottish Government Administration, albeit independent of ministers—it is automatically covered by the public sector equality duty in the Equality Act 2010 and there is no need for a separate order to add ESS to the scope of that duty.

The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 will apply the Scotland-specific equality duties to Environmental Standards Scotland by adding it to the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012. Those will require ESS to publish equality outcomes and report on progress towards achieving those; report on the mainstreaming of equality; and publish information on the gender pay gap and equal pay. It is important that ESS is included in the full range of equality duties that are expected of Scottish public bodies.

Committee members will be aware that the Scotland-specific duties are currently under review and that a consultation is on-going on proposed changes to the 2012 regulations. However, it is not reasonable to delay the inclusion of ESS in those duties. ESS will be included with other public bodies in the scope of amendments to the 2012 regulations.

I hope that that provides a useful overview, and I am happy to respond to any questions that the committee may have on the matter.

Thank you very much, cabinet secretary. Are there any questions?

Cabinet secretary, thank you for bringing those issues to our attention. As you are in front of the committee, will you indicate whether you intend to include ScotRail as one of the organisations that will be subject to the public sector equality duty?

Given that ScotRail is about to come into public ownership, it will be part of the Scottish Administration and will be covered by the 2010 act. The Minister for Transport is considering any further changes that we might make.

As there are no further questions, we move to item 3, which is consideration of the motion to approve the affirmative instrument. I invite the cabinet secretary to move the motion.

Motion moved,

That the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee recommends that the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 [draft] be approved.—[Michael Matheson]

Motion agreed to.

I invite the committee to agree to delegate to me the publication of a short factual report on our deliberations.

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you, cabinet secretary. I briefly suspend the meeting to allow a changeover of witnesses.

10:05 Meeting suspended.  

10:07 On resuming—