Anti-racism delivery plan 2026-2030

4 The Race Equality Framework: What We Have Achieved So Far

Since 2016, the Scottish Government has made considerable progress in advancing the Race Equality Framework (REF). It is this progress that is enabling us to move into the next phase of delivery, focusing on embedding anti-racism more explicitly across government.

Progress to date has included early improvement in some areas, supported by strengthened systems, governance, evidence, and capability required to embed anti-racism across government and public services. Our developing evidence base includes an intersectional evidence review exploring minority ethnic women’s experiences in Scotland; statistical publications drawing on Scotland’s Census 2022 data for Gypsy/Travellers and Roma populations; an updated publication reporting the number of hate crimes recorded by police, including characteristics of recorded for race aggravated crime; and an evidence review exploring what was known about the experience of different ethnic groups within Scotland’s justice system. While these developments are encouraging, evidence of sustained change and impact is still emerging, and in some areas, incomplete. For this reason, a key strategic priority – set out in section 5 - will be to better Measure and Evaluate: strengthening evaluation, improving the quality and consistency of evidence, and supporting policy areas to identify meaningful outcomes.

The Scottish Government has also made significant investments. For example, we have invested over £12.3 million to the REF to tackle discrimination and improve outcomes for adversely racialised communities across Scotland, and nearly £15 million has been spent between 2021-22 and 2024-25 through the Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund to allow Councils to progress their projects for more and better accommodation.

The following section outlines key achievements under the six themes of the REF, briefly described by the overall vision of each theme.

Theme 1: Overarching Work

Vision: Scotland in 2030 is a place where people are healthier, happier, and treated with respect, and where opportunities, wealth and power are spread more equally for people from all communities.

• Supporting third sector organisations in Scotland by investing over £8.1 million during 2021-26 via the Equality and Human Rights Fund to advise, support and empower adversely racialised communities and combat the cost-of-living crisis.
• Establishing in 2026 the Anti-Racism Observatory for Scotland, informed by the significant work of the Anti-Racism Interim Governance Group and the Design Advisory Group over the past few years. AROS will support robust scrutiny and accountability of Scottish Government’s commitments to embedding anti-racism.
• Driving forward our commitment to embed equality and human rights across the Scottish Government and the wider public sector, we published a Mainstreaming Strategy, Action Plan and Toolkit in December 2025, setting out practical steps to achieve this ambition.
• Strengthening the duties and operation of Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) as it operates in Scotland:
  • We are committed to extending the current gender pay gap duty under the Scottish Specific Duties to include a requirement to report on race and disability pay gaps by listed authorities in Scotland.
  • Our Regulation 12 Report 2025-29, published on 8 December 2025, also sets out our proposal to conduct a scoping exercise to determine how we can best use our regulatory powers to introduce a duty on listed authorities to develop and publish Pay Gap Action Plans.
• Strengthening Scotland’s equality evidence base to enable policymakers to develop sound and inclusive policy to improve service delivery and outcomes for all people in Scotland. Key drivers of improvements to Scottish Government’s equality evidence base are the Equality Data Improvement Programme (EDIP), which includes our Equality Evidence Strategies and governance Board, and our Equality Evidence Finder, which collates equality and intersectional evidence across a range of key policy areas.
• Implementing the Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025 which set out actions to improve the equality and intersectional evidence base across the Scottish Government for policymaking, many of which focus on ethnicity. Analysts across the Strategy delivered a range of detailed quantitative and qualitative reports examining the lived experience of people across Scotland, ensuring that existing data and evidence is more accessible (examples are refenced at the beginning of section 4). At the close of the Strategy, 29 of the 45 actions were completed and a number of the action holders plan to continue activities to improve equality data into 2026, showing a wider commitment to improving Scotland’s evidence base beyond the life of the Strategy.
• An evaluation of the Strategy is now underway (due for publication in Spring 2026) that will provide an assessment of improvements to the equality evidence base and identify areas for improvement to take forward as part of the next Strategy.
• Further building the workforce capability needed to embed and promote equalities, including anti-racism across government:
  • Our Diversity and Inclusion Employer Strategy aims to address barriers for all equality groups, including intersectional barriers and those faced by adversely racialised people.
  • The Strategy takes an anti-racist approach to tackle racial inequality and redistribute power, increase accountability and bring about cultural change. It aims to mainstream our equality and inclusion activity into all aspects of our work as an employer, embedding this across our policies, practices, systems, and organisational structures.
  • Its principles and actions are data driven - qualitative and quantitative data has helped us determine where the issues are and how we can address them. Our approach includes gathering pay gap information and our annual Civil Service People Survey, which helps us understand workers’ workplace experiences and feeds into our actions to make improvements. Data is also central to measuring the impact that these actions have.
  • The strategy recognises that adversely racialised staff often have a differential experience across each stage of the employee journey.
  • Specific actions already taken or in train include; work to ensure that our mandatory recruitment training includes understanding of particular barriers facing adversely racialised and under-represented religious candidates in the recruitment process, developing role specific Diversity & Inclusion learning around an anti-racist approach to addressing systemic barriers in processes, systems and environment and launching a refreshed Developing Diverse Leaders programme
  • In February 2025 the Equality, Inclusion, and Human Rights Directorate hosted a transformative Development Academy Week for over 1000 Scottish Government staff. The 19-part Programme was designed to empower the organisation with the knowledge and tools to make a real difference in the workplace and beyond and, included 80 attendees at a Public Sector Equality Duty learning session held with the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
  • We have embedded equality and inclusion within performance management frameworks, by recommending equality and inclusion objectives are created for all SG staff.

Theme 2: Community Cohesion and Safety

Vision: We build good race relations and community cohesion across all communities, and all minority ethnic individuals feel safe, protected and included, and experience less racism.

• Community cohesion has long been a central and enduring priority for the Scottish Government. Our approach is built on the foundation of equality, inclusion and human rights, with partnership working with our delivery partners and communities underpinning everything we do, and a focus on investing in building the strong, connected communities that all of us want to see.
• Providing an additional £300,000 during 2025-26 to the STV Children’s Appeal which will ensure resources are focused at grassroots level where they can contribute most to meaningful and sustainable action to strengthen community cohesion across Scotland. This investment is vital in fostering good relations and encouraging positive dialogue across Scottish society, as well as uniting communities from different backgrounds, cultures, and faiths. Along with bringing people together, the funding will help to tackle exclusion, empower communities, and strengthen civic bonds. The funded activities include housing support, cost of living challenges, employability and mentoring, mental health initiatives, challenging exclusion, and improving community connection through shared interests such as sport, ensuring support reaches the people and places where it has the greatest impact.
• Tackling hatred and prejudice in Scotland through delivery of the Hate Crime Strategy Delivery Plan, which sets out our initial actions up to April 2026, to implement Scotland’s Hate Crime Strategy which outlines our key priorities for tackling and preventing hatred and prejudice, including implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.
• Enhancing data quality across the justice system, to better understand and serve the needs of Scotland’s communities via the Cross Justice Working Group on Race Data and Evidence.
• Improving how complaints against Police Scotland are handled, bringing greater transparency, fairness and accessibility to systems, policies, and processes via the Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Act 2025 which received Royal Assent on 4 March 2025, and the first provisions were brought into force on 25 June 2025. Subsequent secondary legislation and written guidance will support those changes.
• Improving equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) within Police Scotland. Police Scotland’s Policing Together Strategy, a unified approach that integrates key EDI initiatives from across the organisation. This strategy is underpinned by the Chief Constable’s firm commitment to fostering a culture of respect and accountability - where misogyny, racism, and all forms of discrimination are unequivocally rejected, both within the service and in the communities it serves.
• Reviewing the Stop and Search Code of Practice to continue ensuring that Stop and Search by Police Scotland is carried out with fairness, integrity and respect, and irrespective of ethnicity.

Theme 3: Participation and Representation

Vision: Minority ethnic participation and representation is valued, effective, fair, and proportionate at all levels of political, community and public life.

• Addressing Scotland’s involvement in empire, colonialism, and historic slavery using museum collections and museum spaces based on the recommendations of the Empire, Slavery & Scotland’s Museums Steering Group led by Sir Geoff Palmer.
• Ensuring continued diverse representation within the public boards and maintaining the progress delivered from the actions noted in the Race Equality Action Plan. Achieving this diverse representation by continuing to encourage people from adversely racialised communities to apply for public appointments, support candidates through the selection process, and for the conditions to be right for people to be able to give their best when they are on a board.
• Improving the way people take part in open policymaking and delivering services through the Participation Framework, which provides a guide to good practice in participation work across Scottish Government, including information about participatory methods and when to use them, and signposts to further resources.
• Staff guidance on participation has been updated in the form of the Participation Handbook - this includes a focus on equalities and inclusion, and has had input from civil society stakeholders. We will continue to develop and improve this guidance, supported by the establishment of a new staff network for Public Participation.
• Empowering adversely racialised communities to develop cultural activities through the Creative Communities Programme, which seeks to extend high quality opportunities for people to take part in culture, including in areas with more limited opportunities and lower levels of cultural engagement.

Theme 4: Education and Lifelong Learning

Vision: Everyone has the opportunity to learn in an inclusive environment without disadvantage in relation to racial inequality or racism.

• Supporting reform in the education system through the Anti-Racism in Education Programme to develop and embed anti-racism and culturally-responsive leadership and practice throughout the curriculum, strengthening resources and approaches to prevent and respond to racist incidents, and diversifying the education workforce in Scotland to ensure that it reflects and supports the racial diversity of modern Scotland.
• Supporting all young people to achieve their potential, including those from adversely racialised communities by working collaboratively with third sector organisations and Developing Young Workforce (DYW) Regional Groups to increase work-based learning and employer engagement opportunities for those who would benefit most.
• DYW has allocated in excess of £1.8 million of funding directly to third sector organisations that support those hardest to reach, such as disabled, care experienced and adversely racialised young people.
• Supporting adversely racialised communities to experience better outcomes in completing further and higher education through the development of guidance for colleges and universities on setting evidence based, measurable equality outcomes for the period 2021-2025.
• In 2019, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) entered a strategic partnership with the Equality and Human Rights Commission to explore mutual benefits to the organisations working together. This close working led to the publication of the Tackling Persistent Inequalities Together report which was published in early 2023, and this collaborative approach facilitated the development of a set of National Equality Outcomes (NEOs) to the sector. These cover a range of protected characteristics, including Race, and seek to improve:
  • the safety of students and staff and steps taken to address harassment;
  • proportionate representation of staff, Boards and Courts;
  • addressing gaps in attainment; and
  • ensuring a diverse and anti-racist curriculum.

Theme 5: Employability, Employment, and Income

Vision: Minority ethnic people have equal, fair, and proportionate access to employment and representation at all levels, grades and occupation types in Scotland’s workforce and experience fewer labour market, workplace, and income inequalities.

• Tackling child poverty amongst families from adversely racialised communities via the Best Start, Bright Futures: tackling child poverty delivery plan 2022 to 2026.
• We have completed many of the actions in our Anti-Racist Employment Strategy to support employers address barriers and disadvantages experienced by racialised minorities in the labour market in Scotland. This includes an evaluation of the Minority Ethnic Recruitment Toolkit that will inform a revised version reflective of the current recruitment landscape; and delivery of a range of sessions with CEMVO Scotland to employers on issues such as recruitment, data gathering, positive action and training.
• We provided over £475,000 through the Workplace Equality Fund 2022-2024 to five projects focussed on supporting employers to address barriers for adversely racialised people.
• We provided £200,000 to the Scottish Trades Union Congress in 2025-26 for the United Workplaces Fund, for nine pilot projects tackling discrimination and extremism in workplaces and increasing the skills of trade union representatives to manage difficult discussions and situations.
• We are working to further embed equality and human rights in all stages of the Scottish Government’s Budget process and are building on work taken forward over a number of years to improve in this area. We are committed to ensuring our spend advances equality and human rights for all of Scotland’s people.
• Recognising, validating, and valuing the skills people bring to Scotland through our Skills Recognition Scotland (SRS) pilot programme (2018-2023). Learning insights from the project were published in November 2024.
• Developing a diverse and inclusive organisation where everyone feels welcome and respected, ensuring we better reflect the communities we serve. Through delivery of Scottish Government’s Diversity and Inclusion Employer Strategy we are taking an anti-racist approach to tackle racial inequality and redistribute power.

Theme 6: Health and Housing

Vision: Minority ethnic communities in Scotland have equality in physical and mental health as far as is achievable, have effective healthcare appropriate to their needs and experience fewer inequalities in housing and home life.

• Under the Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund (GTAF), announced in Housing 2040, nearly £15 million has been spent between 2021-22 and 2024-25, to allow Councils to progress their projects for more and better accommodation.
• To drive a significant improvement in the quality of sites, we published an Interim Site Design Guide for Gypsy/Traveller sites in December 2021, developed in conjunction with local authorities and with input from members of Gypsy/Traveller communities.
• It now includes Supplementary Material, published in April 2025, based on the experience and lessons learned from demonstration projects. This material provides site and accommodation layout plans for the demonstration projects along with information on approaches to community engagement (including explanations of different accommodation types to support engagement), decanting and fire safety.
• An independent evaluation of the Fund and Design Guide will complete in 2026. The evaluation will gather key learning from the demonstration projects to inform future policy, a final Site Design Guide, and individual local authority projects.
• Continue working with our partners and stakeholders to tackle racialised healthcare inequalities through an anti-racism approach, building on Scottish Government’s Anti-racism Framework for Action and the Improving the Lives of Scotland’s Gypsy/Travellers Action Plan (2024-2026), through specific actions such as:
  • delivery of NHS Board anti-racism plans and a coordinated national offer of support for Boards on anti-racism.
  • improving the quality, completeness, and use of race and ethnicity data to better identify inequalities, ensure equitable care for all communities in Scotland, and monitor progress over time.
  • implementing the Tackling Racialised Inequalities in Maternity Care Action Plan and Interpretation Toolkit, which outline priority actions to support improvements in experience and outcomes for women and babies from minoritised communities.
  • embedding the success of the Gypsy/Traveller Community Health Worker approach into mainstream services.
• Strengthening alignment of mental health policy with work to tackle poverty and reduce inequality via our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Delivery Plan.
• Addressing the mental health inequalities made worse by the pandemic and more recently, the cost of living crisis, via the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund for adults. The Fund aims to tackle inequalities by prioritising a range of ‘at risk’ groups including people from a Minority Ethnic background. The Monitoring and Reporting Summary for Year 4 shows that 157 funded projects supported this priority group.
• Improving health and social care workplace cultures by listening to the voices of adversely racialised staff across the NHS and providing them with opportunities to share resources and support one another (NHS National Ethnic Minority Forum (EMF)).
• The Scottish Parliament has passed the Housing (Scotland) Bill 2024 which contains a package of reforms which will help ensure people have a safe, secure, and affordable place to live in line with our Housing to 2040 vision. Measures in the Bill are anticipated, in general terms, to have a positive impact on all equality groups.
• A rapid evidence review exploring the limited evidence base related to Heating system use and related behaviours of those with protected characteristics in Scotland who are at risk of fuel poverty was conducted in 2021 and published as part of the Fuel Poverty Strategy Analytical Annex.