Green Freeports Programme: equality impact and Fairer Scotland Duty assessment

The Scope of the EQIA

The Scottish Government has undertaken an Equality Impact Assessment to consider the potential impacts of the Green Freeports programme on people with protected characteristics, defined in equality legislation as: age, disability, gender reassignment, sex, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, and sexual orientation.

Key considerations during the EQIA included:

• whether outcomes eliminate discrimination, harassment and/or victimisation
• whether outcomes advance equality of opportunity between persons who share relevant protected characteristics and persons who do not
• whether outcomes foster good relations between persons who share relevant protected characteristics and persons who do not
• intersectionality - a term used to explain how the specific experiences of people who face multiple marginalisation differ from those experiencing just one

A Fairer Scotland Duty assessment (FSDA), which considers how to reduce inequalities of outcome caused by socio-economic disadvantage and to consider alternative options to maximise positive impacts, has been conducted for the Green Freeports programme. It has been combined with the EQIA in this joint document as there is strong evidence of links between poverty and protected characteristics. This means that people considered as having a protected characteristic are more likely to face deprivation. Therefore, it is important to consider these local conditions and the ways these factors compound the experiences of discrimination by persons with protected characteristics.

The framing exercise for this assessment consisted of an initial review of available evidence on equalities impacts of the Green Freeports programme, including the responses to a stakeholder survey conducted during the policy design phase (survey on place-based economic development zones), the Green Freeports’ business cases as well as a framing workshop with officials from Scottish and UK governments working on the Green Freeports programme or in policy areas linked to the programme. Quantitative evidence was gathered from census data (2011 and 2022), Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland and the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Although no formal EQIA or FSDA were conducted during the policy design phase (2020-2022), one of the key considerations during this phase was the potential impact of the policy on the people in and around Green Freeports. A more detailed assessment of equalities impacts was not feasible at the time as the locations of the Green Freeport were only determined after the policy design phase and therefore no specific evidence for the locations could be sourced or considered. The formal EQIA and FSDA were conducted in 2024/25 once the locations were selected and sufficient details about the plans for each Green Freeport became available through the outline and full business cases.

This EQIA/FSDA considered the impact of the Green Freeports programme as a whole and therefore covers both Green Freeport locations. Both Green Freeports also conducted individual EQIAs as part of their business cases.