Fair Work Action Plan: impact report 2025

2. Overview of Programme

2.1 Fair Work Action Plan

The objectives of the Fair Work Action Plan are:

• By 2025, to create more diverse and inclusive workplaces where workers have security of pay and contract, can develop and utilise their skills and have an effective voice in the workplace, making Scotland a Fair Work Nation
• To tackle labour market inequalities faced by women to reduce the gender pay gap in Scotland
• To at least halve the disability employment gap by 2038 (from 2016 baseline of 37.4 percentage points)
• To increase the number and impact of employer actions to address racial inequality
• To work with partners and across Government to mainstream Fair Work across Ministerial Portfolios, with an initial focus on key sectors

To achieve these outcomes, the Fair Work Action Plan sets out a series of interventions under four headline actions. These are:

• Public sector and the role of leadership: We will lead by example on the Fair Work agenda, including sharing and learning of practice, by 2025. We will continue to embed Fair Work in all public sector organisations, setting out clear priorities in the roles and responsibilities of public bodies.
• Embedding Fair Work in public sector spending: We will continue to use conditionality to further embed Fair Work in all forms of financial support.
• Our ask of employers and support available: We will support employers to utilise the resources and support available to embed Fair Work in their organisations. We will work collaboratively to develop these resources to support and build capability among employers, employability providers and partners.
• Support for people to prepare for, access and sustain Fair Work: We will work collaboratively to develop resources to support workers to access, remain and progress in Fair Work.

An intersectional approach is assumed throughout the plan in that all actions and outcomes are intended to acknowledge and address barriers encountered by people who experience inequalities in the workplace, understanding that these can be compounded for those with multiple protected characteristics. A supplementary paper has been published to set out the anticipated intersectional impacts of actions within the plan.

2.2 Fair Work Evidence Plan

A Fair Work Evidence Plan has been developed to monitor progress; draw lessons from comparable economies; address data and evidence gaps; and measure the impact of actions. An overview of progress towards outcomes captured by indicators in the Evidence Plan is provided in this impact report alongside narrative reporting on the FWAP headline actions.

The accompanying Fair Work Action Plan: Indicator Report – September 2025 provides a more detailed update on the indicators for medium-term outcomes outlined in the Evidence Plan. Time lags, both in terms of data reporting and the effects of a policy becoming apparent, mean that some data presented covers only the early period of the FWAP. For example, data for 2025 will not be made available for most indicators until 2026 at the earliest. In addition, as the FWAP is a long-term programme of interventions to support meaningful societal change, some actions may be ongoing or take several years to complete.

The Evidence Plan identified several policy initiatives where a more detailed understanding of the impact could be generated by evaluation activity. These include Fair Work First, real Living Wage and Hours Accreditation, Flexible Working, and Public Social Partnership. Following further review as part of the emergency budget controls in financial year 2024-25 evaluation activity for Fair Work First has been prioritised and is now underway.