Human rights in the UK: Universal Periodic Review, 2017 – Scottish Government position

3. Fighting discrimination and hate crime

Since 2012, the Scottish Government has invested over £100 million to promote equality and tackle discrimination, and works closely with partner organisations to advance the vision of 'One Scotland'. In 2016-17 the Scottish Government has committed funding of £20.3 million. The Equality Budget supports the infrastructure and capacity of equality communities and provides focus and support on issues such as violence against women, hate crime, community cohesion and the integration of refugees. It supports strategic and frontline/local projects across the protected characteristics. The Scottish Government has a legal duty to consider equality in developing its policies and spending plans. ^[30] Each year, alongside the Draft Budget, an Equality Budget Statement ( EBS) is published, which grounds equality considerations in financial decision-making. Specific initiatives to tackle discrimination and advance equality in Scotland include:

• the Race Equality Framework for Scotland 2016-2030 (March 2016) ^[31] was developed to advance race equality and address the barriers that prevent people from minority ethnic communities realising their potential
• allocation of £507,916 of equality funding to faith and belief organisations in 2016-17, including £145,000 to Interfaith Scotland
• a commitment in the 2016-17 PfG to 'review and reform gender recognition law so it is in line with international best practice for people who are transgender or intersex.' A consultation on specific issues to inform the development of this legislation will be published before Summer 2017
• the Scottish Government has added intersex equality to its approach to sexual orientation and gender identity equality, and has provided £45,000 each year since 2015-16 to the Equality Network to facilitate engagement
• over £200,000 funding in 2016-17 to organisations working with Gypsy/Travellers, and publication of minimum quality standards for Gypsy/Traveller sites and core rights and responsibilities for site tenants. ^[32] Further development of a strategic programme of work is ongoing
• the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 ^[33] places a statutory duty on local authorities to prepare a Local Housing Strategy supported by an assessment of housing provision and related services. Revised guidance on preparing strategies was published in 2014 ^[34] and sets out what local authorities should consider in determining a strategy for addressing the needs of Gypsy/Travellers

The Scottish Government has accepted the recommendations of the Independent Advisory Group on Hate Crime, Prejudice and Community Cohesion (23 September 2016). ^[35] Police Scotland has a strong commitment to tackling hate crime and the Crown Office has in place a presumption to prosecute where a crime has been aggravated by prejudice. The Scottish Government is working to improve the capture of data to better understand the scale and severity of hate crime.