Morag Alexander, Scotland Commissioner, speech at Disability Equality In Scotland

May I begin by saying how delighted I am to be here today and to thank the DRC for hosting this very important event. I am always pleased to be here among colleagues who share the new Commission’s passion for equality and human rights.

All of you here today have a major role to play with regard ensuring equality and preventing discrimination as well as promoting human rights. The CEHR will soon join you on this journey. However, the vision that my colleagues in the new Commission and I have for our society goes beyond this – we hope that we can help create a society built on fairness and respect. People confident in all aspects of their diversity. This is something which I personally can sign up to and I hope you will too.

By taking on the role and functions of the existing equality commissions and adding in new responsibilities for promoting equality in relation to sexual orientation, age, religion and belief, and human rights, as well as new powers and duties, the CEHR (like the fight for equality) can be more than just the sum of these parts. It will champion equality in the round, using the human rights framework to ensure that everyone has equal chances to participate in society and to exercise their rights. We hope that the CEHR will be an advocate for, and defender of disadvantaged people, but it will also be more than this. It will have a leadership role, and will be able to use its legal powers to build a society that recognises the work of ALL people, and ensures that no-one is excluded.

The purpose of today has been to allow colleagues to share, discuss and debate how Scotland’s public sector meets its responsibility to create an environment of equality for all disabled people. Much has been achieved with regards moving forward the disability agenda in Scotland, for example the DDA, the work of the DRC in Scotland, the Scottish Parliament Disability Inquiry, but much more still remains to be done. The public sector in Scotland provides a vast range of services– from health to housing to education to transport to employment. It is essential that disabled people are able to access these services in the same way as other citizens, however all to often this is not the case. The Disability Equality Duty is an excellent tool in encouraging and supporting the public sector to ensure that their services are accessible to all, and which should allow disabled people to live as equal citizens in Scotland.

The Disability Equality Duty is an important and effective lever for action. It is so much more than just “another piece of legislation.” It is about institutional change that is substantial and which reaches the causes of inequality and which drives a programme for change. It recognises that essential services, services that we all have a right to, must work much better for all disabled people. The Disability Equality Duty provides a fantastic opportunity for authorities to make a step change in the way disabled people are included, not through making changes for individuals but leading institutional change, so that disabled peoples involvement will help inform everything that is delivered. The Disability Equality Duty also puts the onus on the organisation to make the changes rather than relying on an individual knowing their rights, and having the time, money and willpower to challenge the organisation’s practices in court. It is only right that the public sector deliver for everyone, and the Disability Equality Duty (along with the Race and Gender equality duties) encourages public authorities to strive for this.

Since taking up the post of the Commissioner I have had the privilege to speak to many disabled people – many have had the same concern – what will happen when the DRC goes – will the new Commission be able to enforce things such as the DED. Yes is the short answer. The CEHR will inherit all the existing enforcement powers of the previous commissions and the Commission will make sure that where necessary these powers are used. We will continue to work with you all with regard the DED and we will continue to ensure that the DED is properly implemented.

The DED can help us embed equality and human rights in all areas of policy and practice which in turn is a great way to win hearts and minds as well to strive to create a fairer, more equal society for all. Ensuring that this becomes second nature to everyone is a substantial task for the new Commission and one which we cannot undertake alone. I hope that you will all help in working towards this aim. In addition to the DED, there should soon be the Single Equality Act, which should provide us with more tools to promote equality. The Green Paper on this was published in June. I know that the Paper has attracted criticsim and debate and I urge everyone to look at this and to respond before the closing date on 4th September, as this is the our opportunity to get better equalities legislation for everyone.

Equality can no longer be a minority business. We can act positively, do the right thing, and reap the benefits of a fairer, more equal and more prosperous society, or we can become complacent or neglectful and face a future of economic underperformance and social division. I don’t think that this latter picture is one which any of us wants to see, and certainly it is not part of the CEHR vision – equality matters to each of us.

So I’m sure you’re all wondering how will the CEHR in Scotland work? Collaboratively. And that means in partnership with our sister offices in England and Wales, as well as with key stakeholders and individuals, such as you, in Scotland. Your work is a testament to what can be achieved by collaborating on equalities work and the first-class partnership working which goes on in Scotland, and which we can promote as examples of best practice. Similarly, England and Wales have many innovative schemes from which we can learn. By working across the GB, the CEHR will be able to identify the best of equality and human rights and disseminate this nationwide, using this as a lever to level up practice across Great Britain.

In Scotland one way this will happen is via our new Scotland Director, Ros Micklem, who was appointed earlier this month. Ros has been the principal of Cardonald College since 1997, she also sits on the boards of the Galgael Trust and LEAD Scotland. I’m sure that you’ll join me in welcoming her to the CEHR. Both Ros and I will be supported by the professional staff based in Scotland, and the Devolution Champion, currently the Group Director for Corporate Services, Carol Bernard. The Devolution Champion is a senior staff member who is responsible for ensuring that devolution is mainstreamed throughout the organisation. There will be 56 FTE posts in the Scotland Directorate, including the helpline. Many of these will be filled by staff being transferred from the existing equality commissions (so we won’t be losing the expertise of the excellent staff in the existing commissions), but some, such as many of the helpline posts, will be filled by new people recruited through open recruitment.

We will also be supported by the statutory Scotland Committee. We have completed the interviews for the Committee members and I anticipate making an announcement and holding the first committee meeting soon. I must say we were overwhelmed both by the number of applications and also by the extremely high calibre of applicants which demonstrated the strong commitment to equality and human rights which exists across many communities in Scotland today.

The Scotland Committee will provide informed, impartial and balanced perspectives on a range of sensitive and complex issues in relation to Scotland. Committee members will ensure that the CEHR delivers its functions in a manner appropriate to Scotland and that it can learn from the Scottish experience of equality, social policy and human rights.

It will also be vital for the Scotland Committee to have a strong relationship with other committees and the board of the CEHR. Dame Jane Campbell and I have already been having interesting discussions about how her committee, the Disability Committee, which has a GB-wide remit, and the Scotland Committee can work together. Disability Committee recruitment has just finished and we hope to be able to develop our discussions with the full committees soon. The Disability Committee will be supported by the Disability Programme Director, but I would envisage that the Scotland Director will also have a strong relationship with them, mirroring the strong relationship between the Disability Committee and the Scotland Committee in ensuring that disability issues are mainstreamed in the work of the CEHR in Scotland.

As Scotland Commissioner, I also have a key role to play in the CEHR’s work in Scotland, not only as one of the public faces of the CEHR in Scotland and as chair of the Scotland Committee, but also I will be the main champion for Scotland within the CEHR board ensuring that they take cognisance of devolution and the broader Scottish context and experience and assisting them to deliver the CEHR vision and mission across GB, as well as ensuring that adequate resources are allocated to work in Scotland. However I hope that this role will not just fall to me but that all Commissioners will be advocates for Scotland, England and Wales. I truly believe that this is our opportunity to do something different in GB taking full account of devolution. We may not get it right at first but we hope that you’ll find we’re listening and that you’ll keep us right if we stray to far off track. That is where you all come in– the direction of the CEHR will be as much the responsibility of everyone here as of the Commissioners.

Collaboration also means working with government and the public and voluntary sectors. I, and my fellow commissioners, such as Jane, will be guided by your input as stakeholders and by the Scotland and Disability Committees to ensure that the CEHR we develop is one which is proactive and fit for purpose in Scotland and across GB in the 21st century. It is more than just a merger of the existing equality commissions and a tagging on of new strands. This is an exciting new opportunity to find new and better ways to challenge discrimination and to promote equality and human rights, and the legacies and lessons, as well as the support of others will be instrumental to its success.

The CEHR will not work in isolation in any form, however particularly pertinent in Scotland will be its relationship with Parliament, Government and local authorities, and also with the Scottish Commission for Human Rights, civic Scotland and the voluntary and community sector. We have been working closely with our colleagues in the Scottish Parliament and Executive, in particular on the relationship between the SCHR and CEHR, and we look forward to the appointment of the Commissioners for the SCHR in due course. We have also already had fruitful discussions with a number of other NDPB’s and Commissioners in Scotland, such as the Scottish Commissioner for Children and Young People, the Information Commissioner and the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. I intend to build upon these relationships.

As I have already said there is much that we can learn from each other, and we are keen to support and build productive and constructive relationships across the strands and with people and organisations who share our vision and mission, and we hope that you will want to work with us too. It is part of our mandate that we must consult with people on our strategic plan, and we will endeavour to do so in an appropriate and inclusive manner, reaching out across the whole of GB, not just to the usual suspects but to everyone. The work which we have done and continue to undertake in building relationships with organisations and individuals will be key to this consultation. This will be a prime opportunity to influence the direction of the CEHR whilst it is still in its infancy, I hope you will be as excited as I am about this and will want to participate. We will take every step we can to ensure that this and all aspects of the CEHR is as inclusive as possible and that everyone who wants to is able to engage with the CEHR in a manner which suits them. Remember that this is your Commission too.

There are many challenges facing us in terms of achieving equality and enabling everyone to enjoy their rights and exercise their responsibilities. I am sure that working together we will be able to satisfactorily tackle issues such as the need for hate crime law in relation to disability-related, homophobic, and transphobic as recommended by the Hate Crime Working Group (especially as similar laws already exist in England and Wales), independent living, bullying and discriminatory treatment in education, access to services, and discrimination in employment.

We also hope that our work on human rights will help us achieve our aims. An active human rights culture could provide us with a means of framing the discussions that are needed to promote integration or tackle difficult issues between communities. Human rights do not require any substantive agreement between groups but they can set the conditions under which a discussion can take place. This could be one tool that helps bridge the gap between groups and change the way we treat each other.

The human rights framework won’t dictate how people should behave but it does provide us with underlying values to help establish how we can learn to live with each other. In a diverse society the shared values are the fundamental glue that holds us together and the way we behave towards each other is the outward manifestation of our values.

Of course I can’t talk about human rights without talking about the Scottish Commission for Human Rights. I understand they advertised for their Chair recently. I wish them well with this and look forward to working with him / her once they are appointed. The relationship between the CEHR and the SCHR will be important, particularly from the point of view of the public. We want to ensure that the person on the street is able to access the help, support and information they need without getting passed from pillar to post. This is one of the reasons why we’ve agreed to have the SCHR co-locate with us and to foster shared services where appropriate. The remits of the 2 bodies are laid down in statute, the SCHR covers devolved human rights and the CEHR reserved, however we all know that the distinction is less clear cut in practice, so we’ll be relying on lots of dialogue to ensure that the two bodies complement each other and ensure that we are able to work collaboratively to promote human rights in Scotland.

These will be the types of challenges the new Commission will face. I’m sure, though, with those challenges will come huge opportunities. The new Commission while ensuring that the good work of existing policies and initiatives is carried through, will need to show that it is able to provide a blueprint for new thinking and action in our public policy and services – from support for families, tackling health inequality, increasing employment opportunity, and ensuring equal access to personal security. It will be essential that CEHR optimizes the opportunities presented by its new remit and the changing contexts it will operate in.

As the external context changes, for example the historic change in government in Scotland and the seismic change in the election and make-up of local government, so too is the internal context. A lot is changing in the field of equality and human rights and it is a fascinating process and an historic time to be involved. The DRC may be disappearing but the issues haven’t yet, so I hope we’ll work together to continue to build on the legacies. As I stated earlier, the DED is a vehicle for tremendous change and there is a leadership role for everyone in this room which is to strive for a society which promotes respect, dignity and equality for everyone.

Morag Alexander, Scotland Commissioner, speech at Disability Equality In Scotland

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