Drafts of the Equality and Fairer Scotland Duty Impact Assessment for SP Bill 77: FOI release

Information requested

• All drafts of the Equality and Fairer Scotland Duty Impact Assessment for SP Bill 77,
• The full list of all organisations and individuals contacted during the equality consultation,
• The dates of all contacts made, and
• All responses received in full.

Response

Some of the information you have requested is available online. The final version of the Equality and Fairer Scotland Duty Impact Assessment (EQIA) is available on the Scottish Government’s website, and this lists, on pages 6-7 the organisations to which we sent a consultation questionnaire. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

The questionnaires were sent to the following groups on the following dates:

• 29 May 2025: Crisis and Shelter Scotland.
• 30 May 2025: Carers Scotland, Engender, Men Matters Scotland, Age Scotland, Young Scot, Saheliya, Moving For Change, Traveller Movement, Learning Links Scotland, Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights, Scottish Refugee Council, Community Justice Scotland, Equality Network, LGBT Health and Wellbeing, LGBT Youth, Poverty Alliance, Scottish Trans, Bliss, Interfaith Scotland, Inclusion Scotland, Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland and Disability Equality Scotland.

As the impact assessment also states on page 7, only one return was received from the questionnaires we sent out, from Scottish Trans, and I have attached two documents relating to this return.

An exemption under section 38(1) of FOISA (personal information) applies to some of the information in the first document, namely the email address and name of the sender. This exemption is not subject to the 'public interest test', so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

Although this is outwith the scope of your request, you may also be interested to know that the EQIA also took account of responses to the question in the Scottish Government’s public consultation on the regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures which asked:

• What are your views on how, if at all, the introduction of licensing and regulation of the non‑surgical cosmetics sector in Scotland might affect anyone based on their protected characteristics? and
• What are your views on how the introduction of licensing and regulation of the non‑surgical cosmetics sector in Scotland might affect people differently based on their financial situation?

The responses to the consultation from individuals and organisations where consent was given for publication are available here.

An exemption under section 30(c) of FOISA (prejudicial to the effective conduct of public affairs) applies to drafts of the impact assessment, as disclosure would be likely to undermine the freedom of the government to work on the development of policy. This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202600510954 - Information Released - Annex

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