Equality and Human Rights Budget Advisory Group minutes: September 2025

Attendees and apologies

• Emma Congreve, Fraser of Allander Institute (Interim Chair)
• Alison Hosie, Scottish Human Rights Commission 
• Stephanie Griffin, Scottish Human Rights Commission 
• Sara Cowan, Scottish Women’s Budget Group 
• Joanna Anderson, COSLA 
• Jillian Matthew, Audit Scotland 
• John Somers, Director for Equality, Inclusion and Human Rights, Scottish Government 
• Alasdair Black, Deputy Director, Budget and Fiscal Coordination, Scottish Government 
• Angela Nolte, Head of Exchequer Analysis Unit, Scottish Government 
• Rob Priestley, Head of Mainstreaming Unit, Scottish Government 
• Tom Lamplugh, Head of Social Policy Unit, Scottish Government 
• Ashley Ross, Senior Regulation Support Manager, Scottish Government 
• Gill McCrum, Strategic Development and Organisational Capability Lead, Scottish Government 
• Fergus Boden, Strategy Manager, Scottish Government 
• Simon Wakefield, Principal Research Officer, Scottish Government 
• Niall Davidson, Change and Stakeholder Engagement Lead, Scottish Government 
• Sandra Malloy, Mainstreaming Policy Delivery and Stakeholder Engagement Manager, Scottish Government 
• Michael Hannsman, Graduate  Development Programme, Scottish Government 
• Yuki Tsujino, Senior Impact and Policy Officer, Scottish Government 

Apologies

• Chris Birt, Joseph Rowntree Foundation 
• Mirren Kelly, COSLA 
• Jennie Barugh, Director of Fiscal Sustainability and Exchequer Development, Scottish Government 
• Simon Fuller, Scottish Government 
• Nick Bland, Deputy Director, Equality and Inclusion, Scottish Government 
• Fiona Page, Unit Head Fiscal Events Unit, Scottish Government 
• Hugh Kirkland, Senior Research Officer, Scottish Government 

Guests/Observers

• No guests or observers to note

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions (agenda item 1)

A round of introductions took place among attendees.

Previous meeting actions (agenda item 2)

The secretariat informed the Group that, as part of the transfer to the Scottish Exchequer, the secretariat will review outstanding actions from previous meetings and provide an update at the next meeting. 

An update was provided on the knowledge exchange event taking place on 7 October 2025, including local government, UK and international contributors.

Actions

• Action 1.1: Secretariat to review outstanding actions on inherited Meeting Action Tracker and provide an update at the next meeting. 

Updates and reflections (agenda item 3)

Noted that:

• The transition from DG Communities to DG Exchequer was welcomed, it was noted the transition worked well and is evidence of a mainstreaming approach to embed this where it will have greatest impact.
• There had been several staffing changes at senior level in the Exchequer since the last meeting, with Simon Fuller and David Stevenson taking on the roles of Deputy Directors within the Directorate for Exchequer Strategy.
• DG Exchequer has merged with DG Strategy and External Affairs, with Shona Riach as the new interim Director General.
• EHRBAG to meet quarterly in the pre-election period with a focus on specific areas of work.  There will be opportunities to discuss more fundamental changes to the remit and focus of the group for the post-election period.
• Discussions on date of budget are under way, with the focus being a date in mid-January. The plan is for the strategic integrated impact assessment to be published a few days after the budget statement to allow inclusion of key decisions and better quality assurance. The group was generally supportive of this approach but asked for clear communication on the likely publication date alongside the Budget statement.

Actions

• Action 1.2: Scottish Government to provide organogram showing the Equality and Human Rights Budget Advisory Group's (EHRBAG) involvement and structure. 
• Action 1.3: Scottish Government to provide communications to Group members of potential publication dates for the budget statement.

Interactive discussion 1 (agenda item 4)

Scottish Government set out the process to improve the impact assessment of the budget and spending Review. The aims include helping enable evidence to be considered more effectively as part of the budget process and influence decision-making, and to improve transparency and accessibility of the publication. 

• The plan is for three phases of commissions to maximise links with the budget process.
• The team is also piloting budget scoring (or tagging), with a view to start building an equality and impact database; and also a specific project on tagging the most impactful budget lines in relation to eradicating child poverty.
• Scottish Government will also continue to meet its duties on child rights and wellbeing, and draw on the household distributional analysis of public spending developed last year.
• The plan is to publish a strategic integrated impact assessment, and the approach will be subject to an evaluation 

Broader impact assessment work: Scottish Government outlined broader work on reviewing the landscape for impact assessments. This includes considering distinct approaches to assessments for strategic decisions, individual policies and for emergencies.  Innovative work is under way through a CivTech challenge to use technology to support the process. 

 Discussion points included:

• How the process ensures that the budget fulfils the three needs of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED)
• How cumulative impacts will be assessed
• How the publication can better demonstrate how decisions were made: including how national outcomes drive decision-making, alignment of portfolios with national outcomes, oversight and understanding of proposals, and how analysis and equalities considerations feed into ministerial decisions, including on when funding is maintained at the same level. 
• The need to be transparent about, in particular, negative impacts and how these could be mitigated, including by actions in other portfolios.
• The treatment of human rights within this approach and going beyond a list of rights with calls for a step change in capacity and staff understanding
• The capacity of the Scottish Government to deliver a strategic integrated impact assessment, and develop new approaches, within the timescale set by the budget

Actions

• Action 1.4: Group members to provide feedback on evaluation questions for Strategic Integrated Impact Assessment approach by 14 November, and comments on the Excel template shared as paper 4, noting that template has already been circulated within Scottish Government.

Interactive discussion 2: Scottish Budget and budget transparency (agenda item 5)

Emma Congreve outlined work to develop an interactive dashboard, by the Fraser of Allander Institute, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to make the budget more transparent. This covers national and local government spending with covering function of government, based on the OSCAR database (Online System for Central Accounting and Reporting). The dashboard is expected to be published within the next few weeks.

The intended audience is opposition parties and media ahead of elections, but also for anyone with an interest, giving them a tool to work with data.

Questions and discussion:

• Scope to interrogate down to local authority areas.
• Challenges were noted in tracking funding spread across multiple areas and across time, and the need for some commentary.
• The scope for the Scottish Government to learn and build on this work as it attempts to improve transparency and accessibility of fiscal data.

There was openness to further discussions about building on this work collaboratively. 

Actions

• Action 1.5: Emma to share PowerBI dashboard link with members. 

Any other business

Several upcoming events were noted: 

• A Tax Justice Event (8/10/25)
• A Tax and Poverty Event at the University of Strathclyde
• Human rights budgeting workshop at Audit Scotland offices (1/10/25) 

Regarding future meetings, there is interest in having face-to-face and networking meetings, possibly for the new year. The structure of meetings will be designed to be beneficial. Feedback is welcome and members could consider hosting meetings at their venues.

Actions

• Action 1.6: Secretariat to share Tax Justice Event information (8 October) with group members. 
• Action 1.7: Secretariat to share Tax and Poverty Event information (University of Strathclyde) with group members.
• Action 1.8: Audit Scotland (Alison Hosie) to arrange separate EHRBAG session on human rights budgeting toolkit development in the new year.