Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill: equality impact assessment

Executive summary

The public sector equality duty requires the Scottish Government to assess the impact of applying a proposed new or revised policy or practice. It is a legislative requirement. Equality legislation covers the characteristics of: age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. An equality impact assessment (“EQIA”) aims to consider how policy (a policy can cover: activities, functions, strategies, programmes, and services or processes) may impact, either positively or negatively, on different sectors of the population in different ways.

This EQIA has been undertaken to consider the impacts on equality of the provisions in the Natural Environment (Scotland) Bill (“the Bill”). The overarching aim of the Bill is to support the Scottish Government’s objectives in restoring biodiversity and tackling climate change by putting in place measures that will help to deliver a nature positive vision for Scotland. There are four main strands of work included in the Bill:

• Establishing a framework for statutory targets for improving biodiversity,
• Providing Scottish Ministers with a new delegated power to modify or restate Environmental Impact Assessment (“EIA”) legislation and the Conservation (Natural Habitats, &c.) Regulations 1994 (“the Habitats Regulations”),
• Modernisation of the aims and powers of National Parks and providing Scottish Ministers with a power to set up a fixed penalty notice regime by secondary legislation for contravention of National Park byelaws,
• Reforming legislation relating to deer management.

The Bill contributes to delivering the Scottish Government’s priority of tackling the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. It will help to deliver the Scottish Government’s purpose, as set out in the National Performance Framework, through increasing the wellbeing of people in Scotland as a consequence of restoring Scotland’s natural environment.

The Bill also contributes to the following national outcome: ‘value, enjoy, protect and enhance their environment.’

As part of the EQIA process, the Scottish Government considered potential impacts of the new measures which are being introduced by the Bill on people with one or more protected characteristic. The EQIA concluded that the new measures are neither directly nor indirectly discriminatory on the basis or age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.