Working together towards a Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill: Partial Equality Impact Assessment
This partial equalities impact assessment (EQIA) provides a summary of the key findings from work undertaken to consider the potential equality impacts of the proposed Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill.
Background
The consultation on the LDAN Bill responded to extensive evidence that neurodivergent people and people with learning disabilities face unequal access to services, stigma, and unmet needs, which lead to significantly poorer outcomes for these groups of people. Consultation findings and early scoping discussions highlighted the need for clearer legal recognition, stronger accountability, and improved workforce understanding. The proposed Bill could establish enhanced legislative protections for these groups based on fairness, inclusion, and the social model of disability.
The proposed Bill could directly impact individuals who fall under the umbrella definition of “neurodivergence” that is intended to underpin the provisions in the Bill. It would also affect families and carers, and public bodies.
Development of the Bill proposals involved analysis of almost 900 consultation responses and extensive engagement with three Bill Advisory Panels (lived experience, stakeholder and practitioner), ensuring that people with lived experience and their representatives informed each proposal.
The potential LDAN Bill has been developing as part of a wider landscape of rights-based policy and legislation, including the Public Sector Equality Duty which requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations. The Scottish Specific Duties set out procedural requirements to support compliance with the Duty, including equality outcomes, impact assessment, and reporting. In the context of this EQIA, these duties provide the framework for considering potential equality impacts and identifying risks or gaps in existing practice. However, while they support consideration of equality in decision-making, they do not in themselves create new individual rights or enable Ministers to mandate specific actions such as statutory planning or mandatory training.
Contact
Email: LDAN.Bill@gov.scot