Existing legislative obligations
A key concern raised about the introduction of the duty is the potential for it to duplicate rather than complement existing public sector duties, such as in the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009, the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, and the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017.
As of the end of February 2024, 26 of 355 Acts of the Scottish Parliament referred to “sustainable development”, often prefixed by references to ‘promoting’ or ‘achieving’.