Green Freeports Programme: equality impact and Fairer Scotland Duty assessment

Recommendations and Conclusion

The equalities related risks identified during the policy design phase, economic displacement and erosion of workers’ pay and conditions, were addressed by building mitigations into the policy design.

The economic displacement risk, and with it the increased potential of negative impacts on people with protected characteristics and socio-economic disadvantage, is being mitigated mainly by making the tax reliefs targeted at new, additional economic activity, time-limited and geographically limited to designated tax sites, which are required to be situated on undeveloped or underdeveloped land. The Green Freeports are required to monitor, mitigate and report on any potential economic displacement as they move forward in delivery. Economic displacement will also be monitored as part of the overall Green Freeports programme monitoring and evaluation processes.

The risk of workers’ pay and conditions being eroded, has been addressed by using levers available to the Scottish Government to promote fairer work practices. The Green Freeports were required to set out in their business cases how fair work practices were going to be embedded in Green Freeport tax and customs sites. Both Green Freeports decided to implement fair work commitments by adopting robust Fair Work Charters which businesses locating in tax and customs sites have to sign up to. The charters place contractual obligations for on-site landowners and businesses to adhere to fair work practices, aligned with the Scottish Government’s Fair Work First guidance, including payment of the Real Living Wage. To monitor compliance, a number of fair work related indicators have been included in the Green Freeports programme’s monitoring and evaluation strategy.

The formal EQIA and FSDA conducted during the set up phase of the Green Freeports identified a small number potential negative impacts and risks for people with protected characteristics and socio-economic disadvantage, as explained in the previous section. Mitigations for these are most effectively put in place by the individual Green Freeports. The Green Freeports have conducted EQIAs as part of their full business cases, which include a number of mitigations. They have also committed to assessing equalities impacts at project-level. The Scottish Government will hold the Green Freeports to account for further developing and implementing mitigating actions as part of the annual performance review (APR) process which is being put in place for the delivery phase of the Green Freeports programme.

The commitments made by the Green Freeports in their business cases will be subject to robust monitoring and reporting requirements as part of the monitoring and evaluation approach of the Green Freeports programme overall. The approach will include a range of different evaluation methods, including collection of bi-annual data submitted by each Green Freeport across a range of indicators (e.g. jobs, investment, fair work, net zero, skills, innovation, site progress, spend). Over time this data, combined with macroeconomic modelling, interviews and other methods, will enable a clear and tangible measurement of impact, including equalities impacts, value for money, and process. This approach will enable government to continue holding Green Freeports to account and provide insights for future policy learning.

This EQIA/FSDA will be reviewed in 2028 at the latest. A review might be deemed appropriate earlier than 2028 if the annual performance reviews of the Green Freeports provide a particular reason to do so.