Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, 10 September 2021
Dear Convener
Ahead of my appearance at next week’s meeting of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, and in light of the announcements made in the Programme for Government, I believe it might be helpful to provide updates on a range of key actions in advance of the meeting.
The COVID-19 pandemic has re-emphasised the importance of full consideration of equality and human rights across the Scottish Government and the wider public sector. Underpinning our work in this area, within the next year we will therefore begin consulting on a mainstreaming strategy to embed equality, inclusion and human rights across the public sector.
The mainstreaming strategy will improve how we centre equality, inclusion and human rights in all government policies, decisions and spending, and support the wider public sector and others to do likewise.
In parallel, we will take further action to embed equality and human rights within the Scottish Government’s Budget process, building on the work taken forward over a number of years to progress this. The Equality Budget Advisory Group (EBAG) presented Ministers and Scottish Government with a set of recommendations on equality and human rights budgeting earlier in 2021, and these are being considered.
It is appalling and totally unacceptable that we have seen an increase in domestic abuse during the pandemic. As part of our 100 days commitments, we have already invested an additional £5 million in supporting frontline organisations which tackle domestic abuse and sexual violence to deal with additional pressures that have occurred during the pandemic.
Building on that, and starting this year, we will invest over £100 million to support frontline services and focus on prevention of violence against women and girls from school onward over the next three years. That figure includes the enhanced Delivering Equally Safe Fund, which we have increased by £12 million to £38 million, now providing over £28 million to support frontline services, and £2 million for prevention over the next two years.
I recognise that many disabled people have been profoundly affected by the pandemic and necessary restrictions, compounding existing disadvantages in many cases. I am determined that we work in partnership with disabled people themselves to renew our work to support them and reduce entrenched inequalities. Central to that is our commitment to work with disabled people to draw up a new Disability Equality Plan, which we will publish in 2022.
An important aspect of our work in this area will be the development of a new National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy to support disabled young people as they make the transition to adult life.
Over the past year, we have worked with 10 local authority areas to test the implementation of the Principles into Practice draft framework, based on ‘Principles of Good Transition’, developed by ARC Scotland. This continued to progress, despite the pandemic, and uses quality improvement methods to aid consistent learning.
In addition, also through ARC Scotland, we are supporting young disabled people and their parents and carers to develop tailored information and support at the right time for them; while gathering feedback to help shape transitions services and policy in their local areas.
Our next steps are to develop a more comprehensive stakeholder engagement programme, to enable disabled children and young people to have their voices clearly heard across developing policies that impact on their daily lives. Early discussions with organisations to support this work are planned for late September.
Disabled people have also been disproportionately affected by social isolation and loneliness during the pandemic, as have carers. That is why these groups, alongside others most affected, were particularly targeted among nine initiatives that will share almost £1 million to tackle loneliness and isolation as a result of the pandemic. This is the first stage in delivery of our £10 million commitment to support a new five-year social isolation and loneliness plan and we are currently working with stakeholders to take this forward.
We know that COVID-19 has also had a disproportionate impact on some minority ethnic communities and we have benefited hugely from the work of the Expert Reference Group on COVID-19 and Ethnicity.
At the time of writing, we will shortly publish an Immediate Priorities Plan for Race Equality, which includes plans to fulfil the recommendations of the Expert Reference Group. The plan will run up to 2023, and sets out actions to tackle structural disadvantages faced by minority ethnic communities.
Actions to address those issues needs to be immediate but will need long-term focus. The plan will therefore also act as a foundation for development of a long-term programme of systemic change from 2023, to ensure that by 2030 Scotland fulfils its vision of being a fair and equal country for all.
We will also continue to implement the Gypsy/Travellers Action Plan up to October 2022, working with COSLA to deliver this important set of commitments to improving the lives of Scotland’s Gypsy/Traveller community.
In the coming year, we will consult on a new Human Rights Bill, to be introduced in this parliamentary session. This Bill will be part of taking forward the 30 bold recommendations from the National Taskforce for Human Rights Leadership.
The Human Rights Bill will incorporate into Scots law, as far as possible within devolved competence, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, alongside three international human rights treaties for the empowerment of women, disabled people and minority ethnic people.
The Bill will also include a right to a healthy environment, a right for older people to ensure equal access to their human rights so that they can live a life of dignity and independence, and provision to ensure equal access to everyone, including LGBTI people, to the rights contained in the Bill.
This is in parallel with our existing work, with UK Government and international organisations, to safeguard and promote the increasing observance of human rights standards. In February 2021, the Minister for Equalities and Older People wrote to the Committee to give a complete overview of all international treaty reporting activity undertaken by the Scottish Government since April 2019.
In addition, the Scottish Government, the University of Dundee, Amnesty International, Front Line Defenders and other contributors co-deliver the Scottish Human Rights Defender Fellowship which was set up in 2018. The Fellowship provides two human rights defenders with placements in Scotland for a period of 3-6 months, where they can continue their work, develop their skills and extend their networks in a place of safety. The human rights defenders selected for the 2020/21 Fellowship are from Brazil and Colombia.
The Scottish Government is committed to making necessary changes to the Gender Recognition Act to improve and simplify the process by which a trans person can obtain legal recognition. We will take this action whilst upholding and protecting the legal protections that women currently have.
As the First Minister made clear in her statement on the Programme for Government, whilst we will bring forward legislation in this parliamentary year, we do understand that there are sincerely held concerns and questions. Therefore we continue dialogue with stakeholders and hope that the debate on this issue will be able to be respectful and considered.
I look forward to answering questions from the Committee on these strands of work and the many others within my portfolio which are delivering on our aspiration to see everyone in Scotland living their lives free from discrimination and with their human rights fulfilled.
Yours sincerely
Shona Robison