Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill: equality impact assessment

Decision making and monitoring

Stage 4: Decision making and monitoring

Identifying and establishing any required mitigating action

If, following the impact analysis, you think you have identified any unlawful discrimination – direct or indirect - you must consider and set out what action will be undertaken to mitigate the negative impact. You will need to consult your legal team in SGLD at this point if you have not already done so.

Have positive or negative impacts been identified for any of the equality groups?

Overall the legislation is anticipated to have a positive impact on the equality groups identified.

Is the policy directly or indirectly discriminatory under the Equality Act 2010?^[49]

No

If the policy is indirectly discriminatory, how is it justified under the relevant legislation?

N/A

If not justified, what mitigating action will be undertaken?

N/A

Describing how Equality Impact analysis has shaped the policy making process

The EQIA process has helped to strengthen our commitment to reform the regulation of legal services. We focused on evidence and analysis from the consulation held in 2021, and related analytical work, which found that groups most likely to be positively affected include:

• Consumers of legal services, which may account for a large share of the population, and a subset of those who may raise legal complaints,
• Legal professionals
• Unregulated legal providers of legal services.

Stage 5 - Authorisation of EQIA

Please confirm that:

This Equality Impact Assessment has informed the development of this policy:

Yes X / No

Opportunities to promote equality in respect of age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation have been considered, i.e.:

• Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment, victimisation;
• Removing or minimising any barriers and/or disadvantages;
• Taking steps which assist with promoting equality and meeting people's different needs;
• Encouraging participation (e.g. in public life)
• Fostering good relations, tackling prejudice and promoting understanding.

Yes X / No

If the Marriage and Civil Partnership protected characteristic applies to this policy, the Equality Impact Assessment has also assessed against the duty to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation in respect of this protected characteristic:

Yes / No / Not applicable X

Declaration

I am satisfied with the equality impact assessment that has been undertaken for Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill and give my authorisation for the results of this assessment to be published on the Scottish Government's website.

Name: Denise Swanson

Position: Deputy Director

Authorisation date: 26/4/23