Human Rights Bill for Scotland: discussion paper

2.10 Reporting by Listed Authorities

2.10.1 Planning & Reporting Duty

Proposals for the Bill seek to introduce a Planning and Reporting Duty on listed authorities in relation to the proposed duties in the Bill and human rights. Respondents to the consultation were broadly supportive of our proposals for the Duty and subsequent engagement with the IWG assisted in developing the detail of the proposals further. Under our proposals, the Duty will be applied to listed public authorities. It will require them to report on actions they have taken (backwards-looking) and are planning to take (forwards-looking) for the purposes of implementing the duties set out in the Bill and to secure better or further effect of human rights. The intention is that the Planning and Reporting Duty will promote accountability and transparency on actions taken and planned by public authorities towards compliance with the duties set out in the Bill.

Listed authorities will be required to report every three years, as is the case with the reporting duty for listed authorities under the UNCRC Act 2024. The timeframe for reporting has been proposed after careful consideration and due regard to the calls from stakeholders to rationalise and align reporting where possible and practicable, in order to reduce the administrative burden on public authorities and ensure that the reporting period offers sufficient time for meaningful action and change to have taken place, as well as adequate time for reporting to be completed to a high standard.

Two or more listed authorities will be allowed to submit joint reports and listed authorities may also combine their reports under the Planning and Reporting Duty with other reports, such as the specific planning and reporting duty on oversight bodies and potentially their reports under the UNCRC Act 2024, into one report. This seeks to address extensive feedback from public bodies, which advocated for the Planning and Reporting Duty to align with existing reporting requirements such as the PSED reporting timelines or UNCRC Act 2024 reporting, where possible.

2.10.2 Listed authorities

In selecting the listed authorities to be captured by the Planning and Reporting Duty, we are considering in particular public authorities captured by the UNCRC Act 2024 reporting duty, as well as by PSED and by the Fairer Scotland Duty, along with other public authorities. A key consideration is whether requiring the relevant public authority to undertake planning and reporting would provide information of sufficient value or relevance for other public authorities, stakeholders and rights-holders to the extent that it justifies the additional resource requirements placed on that particular public authority. This includes considering to what extent this reporting and planning would go beyond what would be captured by existing reporting duties. This approach recognises the existing reporting requirements on public authorities and that many public authorities provide core functions or services, which are perhaps less applicable or relevant to the duties set out in the Bill to the extent that it justifies an additional reporting requirement.

In order to ensure the authorities listed in the Bill remain relevant, the Bill will confer a power to Ministers to modify the listed authorities by either adding, removing or amending an entry for a listed authority.

2.10.3 Reporting requirements on the Scottish Human Rights Commission

Proposals seek to require the SHRC to review reports submitted by listed authorities covered by the Planning and Reporting Duty, as it considers appropriate. This is meant to allow the SHRC some flexibility in terms of the approach it takes to reviewing reports. It means the SHRC would not need to review all reports but could, for example, focus on a specific issue, or sector. The SHRC must then report to Scottish Ministers from time to time on any matters arising from the reports, especially any systemic human rights issues, and must lay before Parliament any report prepared by it as part of this Duty. Scottish Ministers will then be expected to report on such systemic issues to the Scottish Parliament as part of their reporting under the Human Rights Scheme.

This will be an important feature to identify ongoing and emerging human rights issues, best practice, and opportunities for improvement, and to communicate these to Scottish Ministers, the Scottish Parliament and the relevant public authorities themselves. It also ensures that there is a direct connection between the reports by listed authorities and the reports by the Scottish Government, and that the Scottish Parliament and Scottish public can better hold the Scottish Government to account.

Our proposals here act on stakeholder feedback about the need for the Duty to be accompanied by independent monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, with review and scrutiny of the reports to be undertaken by an independent body. The SHRC were considered best placed to undertake this role given their expertise and independence from Scottish Government.

2.10.4 Alternative approaches

2.10.4.1 Reporting cycle

An alternative approach was aligning the reporting cycle with that of the PSED, which requires reporting every four years, with an interim report every two years. However, we felt that the natural link and areas of overlap between children’s rights and human rights provided a strong rationale for linking these reporting cycles. We also considered that, with the active phased changes to the PSED regime in Scotland, as well as consideration of further changes in the longer term, this approach provides a more stable and secure framework for the proposed Planning and Reporting Duty to align with the UNCRC Act 2024 reporting framework. In addition, there may be scope for the PSED reporting cycle to be amended in the future, for example, to align with our proposed (and UNCRC) reporting cycles. However, we are aware that some stakeholders would not be in favour of such a change to the PSED reporting cycle.

2.10.4.2 Blanket approach to listed authorities

Another approach considered to the listed authorities in the Bill was to use a blanket definition of public authorities on the face of the Bill. This would mean that all public authorities in Scotland would be captured by the Planning and Reporting Duty, rather than selected specific authorities. Recognising the existing range of reporting requirements on public authorities and that many public authorities provide core functions or services, which are perhaps less applicable or relevant to the duties set out in the Bill to the extent that it justifies an additional reporting requirement, it was felt that to unilaterally require plans and reports would neither be the best use of resources, nor produce information of sufficient value or relevance.

2.10.5 Further considerations

The final composition of the listed authorities remains under development and we will engage with potential listed authorities and other relevant representative bodies in finalising this. We will continue to test these proposals with key stakeholders, including the SHRC.

We will continue to consider alignment with existing reporting mechanisms and will carefully consider interactions with proposals for oversight bodies. We anticipate that guidance for listed authorities on discharging their planning and reporting functions will further support them to align with existing reporting mechanisms where possible and desirable.