Equality Data Improvement Programme project board - highlight report: October 2025

Project name: Equality Data Improvement Programme (EDIP)
Senior Responsible Officer: Mick Wilson, Head of Communities Analysis Division
Project Manager: Beth Cocker /Molly Halligan
Next project meeting: 21/10/2025
Period covering: 11/09/2025-10/10/2025
Report date: 10/10/2025
RAG last period: Green
RAG this period: Green

Summary of overall progress 

Analysts across the Scottish Government and NRS are continuing to progress the agreed equality data improvement actions, set until the end of 2025. Action leads provided an update on progress in September 2025.

Of the 45 actions in the strategy:

• 25 are complete, in the previous July 2025 progress update 17 were complete
• 10 are on course, in the previous July 2025 progress update 20 were on course
• 8 are delayed, in the previous July 2025 progress update 6 were delayed
• 0 are not yet started.
• 2 are no longer feasible, in the previous July 2025 progress update 2 were no longer feasible (EDIP Board approval is required)

Project achievements for this period

Action 13

Social Security Scotland published their annual client diversity and equalities analysis up to March 2025 on 26 August 2025. This looked at equality analysis by outcome of application across all benefits with application forms, and also included intersectionality analysis. We are continuously aiming to improve the quality of these statistics by refining data processes and methodology, and by working with the Scottish Government to improve data quality. https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications/statistics

Action 15

Three reports on equalities have now been published alongside the last three annual reports on the Scottish Welfare Fund. The first report summarised each category, and looks at award rates. The second report added a section on the intersections between different equality categories, and the third focused more on gender differences across a selection of applicant characteristics. The reports have highlighted where data quality is poor, and there have been some efforts by local authorities to make more efforts to collect this data from applicants, with limited success. We intend to continue these reports in the future, and we continue to derive further value from the data we hold by producing other topic reports in a similar manner each quarter, as inspired by the original equalities report.

Action 21

The Equality Analysis team have recently published census analysis for the Roma population, which includes intersectional findings. The analysis presented in this report aims to fill some of the current evidence gaps on experiences and outcomes associated with Scotland’s Roma population, and will allow policymakers to improve services, and support policy development and monitoring. The team are also progressing a Disability Evidence Review, as part of the Disability Equality Plan, which they expect to be published in December, 2025 completing this action by the end of the Strategy. Collection and use of intersectional equality data, including identifying and addressing gaps, is expected to remain a priority in the next Equality Evidence Strategy.

Delayed milestones/tasks

Actions 1 and 2

Development of disability data is being explored in the context of child protection Joint Investigative Interview data, in work being led by CELCIS. Learning from this will be considered and applied in future updates to Child Protection and Looked After Children datasets.

Action 8

2024-25 Hate Crime statistics will be published early 2026 - this will include age, sex and ethnicity. As previously reported the rollout of UNIFI across all of Police Scotland should allow for more analysis in the future. However, this is unlikely to be realised in the short term.

Action 25

Resource from this workstream has been diverted to focus on the re-development of the current data collection systems into open source software (SG wide project).  Once the re-development is complete, work on the data review will resume and timelines will be revised where required. HL1 data currently collects data on gender, date of birth and ethnicity of the main applicant and their partner.

Actions 28 and 30

Previously marked as ‘not yet started’, these actions relate to Health and Social Care improving response rates which includes developing an easier system to input data year round, as well as plans to explore how links can be made to NPCCD for smoother data collection. The new approach aims to be in place for in-hours in 2024 and out-of-hours by 2025 onwards. A working group for the 2024 survey discussed the collection of more equality data, but suggested the surveys were not the best approach as individuals do not have access to their own data. Other approaches to obtain this data are now being considered.

Action 31

Previously marked as ‘not yet started’, this action relates to improvements to equality data for Core Dataset for Tier 2 and Tier 3 Weight Management Services for Children/Young People and Adults in Scotland. The team are reviewing this dataset with PHS and exploring what progress can be made in light of resourcing issues.

Action 44

Achieving the broader aim of improving the availability of ethnicity data for our mortality statistics is still on the team’s long term aims but due to the change from in-person registrations to online and limitations on resource within the team, means progress has been delayed and it is likely it won’t be achieved by the end of 2025.

Plans for next period

Action 3

Findings from Sweep 11 of Growing Up in Scotland are being written up currently and will be published in the second half of 2025. This will include analysis across equalities characteristics (sex, disability, SIMD) where there is sufficient base size.

Action 14

Intersectionality analysis is being included in the annual Social Security Client Survey report 2024/25 (published November 2025), with the expectation that it will be included in future annual Client Panel publications

Action 23

There are four areas outlined in this action. All areas have progressed well over the course of the strategy period. However, as these areas do not have distinct end points, further development will continue past the life of the strategy. Next steps - We are in the beginning stages of developing a road map and business case on the future direction of the EEF to ensure it is fit-for-purpose in the longer term. This work will be informed by user feedback, areas of focus identified in the next Equality Evidence Strategy, the priorities set out in Scottish Government’s Equality Outcomes for 2025-2029 and other relevant policies.

Action 32

Additional protected characteristics data on disability, sexual orientation and religion were added to the 2025 MHIC data collection and scheduled for publication in the 2025 report due early 2026

Action 42

The agricultural household survey was launched in July 2025 and included questions on equalities data with results to be published in 2026.

Key risks

Risk no. 1

Some actions within the Equality Evidence Strategy are not taken forward by analysts, for example some action leads have indicated that their completion date will go beyond 2025 due to lack of available data.

Severity (1-5): 4 
Probability (1-5): 2
Actions: Equality Analysis Team has gained buy-in from a network of analysts to help drive the work forward and continue to monitor progress. The EDIP programme also has senior buy in from ALG, along with the Chief Statistician and Chief Social Researcher.

The Interim Review (2024) suggested a next step of offering individual meetings with action leads to identify which programmes of work require more support and how this can be done. This includes thinking about how to encourage and support action leads increasing policy engagement with their actions to extend wider impact over the course of the Strategy’s final year.

Impact of Actions on Risks: Regular review of actions ensuring progress and relevance.

Risk no. 2

Staff changes within project board and network leads responsible for actions

Severity (1-5): 1
Probability (1-5): 3
Actions: The Interim Review (2024) concluded that regular communication will be maintained and a handover note will be developed for any new members to the EDIP board and analysts taking over actions to ensure better understanding of the Strategy and EDIP.

Impact of Actions on Risks: Project Board are more informed of EDIPs progress to date. Analytical network leads are able to take actions forward and maintain progress updates. 

Project RAG status key

Red: some risks/issues require immediate attention from the Programme Manager/Challenge Owner/Lead
Amber: some risks/issues are self contained within tolerances
Green: project is proceeding on schedule