Scottish Parliament (Disqualification of Members of the House of Lords) Regulations 2025: equality impact assessment

Key Findings

The measures outlined in the SSI (as summarised in the section above) are narrow in nature, and the Scottish Government does not consider these to have an equality impact as the cohort of individuals directly affected is small. While there is no evidence to suggest any impact on people with protected characteristics, people in Scotland may feel access to and representation from MSPs is improved as a result of the practice of holding an MSP and a Member of the House of Lords role concurrently ending, as MSPs may have more time and attention to focus on that role. It may also allow more individuals to have the opportunity to hold the role of MSP if there is less opportunity for one person to hold an MSP and a Member of the House of Lords role at the same time, freeing an MSP role for another individual to enter professional politics. It is less clear whether a person leaving the House of Lords would necessarily create space as the House of Lords has no fixed size. Due to the size of the people impact and the available research, there is no published evidence which supports or undermines these possible impacts.