EHRC Scotland publishes annual report

16 Sep 2016 01:29 PM

The Equality and Human Rights Commission in Scotland has published its annual report for 2015 to 2016.

Scotland Commissioner Dr Lesley Sawers said:

"Since taking up my post as Scotland Commissioner for the EHRC I have been really impressed by the range and breadth of work carried out over a wide range of issues.

"This is vitally important work taking place alongside colleagues across Scottish government, business and civil society in our task to make the country a fairer place to live.

"We have just published our annual report, outlining just a few of the notable outcomes that have been delivered in Scotland in 2015/16.

"I would like to thank the Scottish team, my fellow Scotland Committee members and our partners who have worked with us to deliver this excellent body of work which demonstrates our impact and value to Scotland. Our programme of work for 2016/17 is already well underway and I look forward to sharing updates on our progress with you over the coming months."

Successes

  • Published our five-yearly report ‘Is Scotland Fairer?’, studying progress on equality and human rights.
  • Launched a major campaign to end pregnancy and maternity discrimination across Scotland.
  • Intervened in a case against Fife Council where a disabled pupil was informed that the support package in place to allow him to continue in education would be removed on his 18th birthday.
  • Assisted Scotland’s 5,000 kinship carers to get a fairer deal through increased financial support.
  • Monitored compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), publishing our assessment of 240 public bodies’ compliance with the Scotland Specific Equality Duties.
  • Worked on the Scotland Bill, helping to maximise opportunities to promote and protect equality and human rights in Scotland.
  • Intervened in a judicial review brought to challenge the fact that there was no effective mechanism to allow people detained in medium secure units to challenge that level of security.
  • Worked with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to ensure that the mental health components of the new medical assessment rules were non-discriminatory.
  • Ran three legal stakeholder ‘Transfer of Expertise’ (ToE) events and a major annual Discrimination Law Conference.
  • Launched our new Legal eBulletin and developed a series of innovative webinars.
  • Published scoping research into the employment conditions of migrant workers in the fishing and farming industries in Scotland.
  • Commissioned research to explore ageing and the economy and how older people’s lives in Scotland are changing.
  • Following the success of the Commonwealth Games in 2014, we worked withsportscotland to find out to what extent sports in Scotland were open and accessible to Scotland’s diverse communities.