Committee
Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee 13 January 2026
13 Jan 2026 · S6 · Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee
Item of business
Public Sector Equality Duty
John Wilkes
Watch on SPTV
Gosh—there are a number of reasons. In many public bodies, there is still a fundamental lack of understanding about what the public duties are there to do. Some of the work that public bodies do is at quite a high level and is very process focused, so we think that there needs to be a shift in public bodies’ thinking in relation to the duties being there to help them to develop quality outcomes over certain periods in order to achieve the three main pillars of the general duty.An awful lot of guidance has been produced. We like to think that we have produced excellent technical guidance and other guidance to support all aspects of the operation of the duties. That includes guidance on what “due regard” means, how to foster good relations and all the other areas for improvement that the committee picked up on in its report.There could be better direction and leadership from bodies such as the Scottish Government through the setting of, when appropriate, national and sectoral equality outcomes.In many public bodies, understanding of the PSED is still very much at the top of the organisation; the PSED might not be understood throughout the whole of the public body. It should be second nature—we hope that everybody who works in the public sector will think about the PSED in their day-to-day work in the same way as they think about health and safety and all sorts of other things. When they are developing policies or services, they should think about equality considerations and what to put into equality impact assessments.There is still a challenge in accessing good equality data. The commission recognises that that can be challenging, particularly for public bodies that do not have a big workforce and need to gather data from outside. The Government’s equality data improvement project, which we have been a part of over the past few years, has been a good step in allowing us to consider better ways of developing good equality data across the Government and the public sector.Those are some of the reasons why public bodies have difficulties. It is important to say that progress has been made since the introduction of the specific duties in 2012 and the subsequent ones in 2016, so the picture is not all bleak. There are good examples of the equality duty having achieved change and progress in the public sector, but there is still a lot more to do.Jennifer, do you want to add anything?
In the same item of business
The Convener (Karen Adam)
SNP
Good morning, and welcome to the first meeting in 2026, in session 6, of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. We have received apologies...
John Wilkes (Equality and Human Rights Commission)
Thank you very much, convener. Happy new year to the committee.We thank the committee for the opportunity to comment on your report on the effectiveness of t...
The Convener
SNP
Thank you very much.We will move to questions. The committee found that the PSED is not delivering its aim to improve outcomes for people with protected char...
John Wilkes
Gosh—there are a number of reasons. In many public bodies, there is still a fundamental lack of understanding about what the public duties are there to do. S...
Jennifer Laughland (Equality and Human Rights Commission)
I do not think so. That was quite a comprehensive answer.
The Convener
SNP
Tess White will ask the next questions.
Tess White (North East Scotland) (Con)
Con
John, should I address you as John or as Mr Wilkes?
John Wilkes
John.
Tess White
Con
Thank you. Is it the same for you, Jennifer?
Jennifer Laughland
Yes.
Tess White
Con
Thank you.This has been a long-awaited evidence session—we have been waiting for almost a year—so thank you for coming this morning.What is the EHRC doing to...
John Wilkes
On your question about what we are doing, we recognise that many stakeholders think that we are not doing enough, but a lot of what we do is done behind the ...
Tess White
Con
We are pressed for time.
John Wilkes
Sorry.
Tess White
Con
Jennifer, we will cover the outcomes later, so perhaps we can focus on the immediate question for now. As a region MSP, I cover several educational authoriti...
John Wilkes
In response to the Supreme Court judgment of last year, which is what I think you are referring to—
Tess White
Con
I am referring to the short-life working group.
John Wilkes
The Government has stated that it accepts the outcome of the judgment, and that, to address it, it has set up a short-life working group to look across the s...
Tess White
Con
The way I interpret that answer is that not much has happened with the short-life working group. It has stalled and has not had much engagement, and it is al...
John Wilkes
I would not articulate it like that, no. Our role is not to be part of the working group or to check its homework. We have urged the group to do as swiftly a...
Tess White
Con
The website says that the EHRC is a key stakeholder—my definition of a key stakeholder seems to be different from the one that is being used there—and that M...
John Wilkes
Yes.
Tess White
Con
Thank you; you have answered the question.As you have mentioned, following the Supreme Court judgment, the law is clear. Has the EHRC started work on an awar...
John Wilkes
The main thing that we have done since the judgment is update the code of practice on services, which we had been working on anyway. In 2024, we reviewed the...
Jennifer Laughland
We are working on the schools’ technical guidance in England, Scotland and Wales, and the employment code is part of our planned programme of work. I might h...
Tess White
Con
If you can, that would be good, thank you. It is mentioned on the short-life working group’s website.MSPs regularly engage with the IJBs, chief executives an...
John Wilkes
We help employers in a number of ways, mainly through the guidance that we produce. There are thousands of employers across Scotland and Britain. Some are in...
Tess White
Con
That is fine; that is a private sector example. However, there are more than 100 public sector organisations in Scotland, and I would have expected the EHRC ...
Jennifer Laughland
As John Wilkes mentioned earlier, we issue guidance on the public sector equality duty that covers the duty of public sector organisations to do things such ...
Tess White
Con
But the Supreme Court judgment was just a clarification of the law. The legislation has been in place since 2010. Under the Equality Act 2010, there are nine...