Measuring Up? monitoring and enforcement

Monitoring the public sector equality duty in Scotland

Since May 2013 the Commission in Scotland has conducted ‘Measuring Up?’, a programme of work to monitor listed authorities’ compliance with the Equality Act (2010) (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012, which set out actions to support listed authorities’ to meet their public sector equality duty in Scotland. Read a bullet-point summary of the process from 2013 to 2017.

This monitoring programme has been carried out in 5 stages.

Stage 1

We monitored listed public authorities’ against the requirements to publish information as required by the following duties:

• duty to report progress on mainstreaming the equality duty
• duty to publish equality outcomes and report progress
• duty to gather and use employee information
• duty to publish gender pay gap information
• duty to publish statements on equal pay including occupational segregation information

We published the results of this assessment in June 2013 Measuring Up? Monitoring Public Authorities’ performance against the Scottish Specific Equality Duties.

Stage 2

We commissioned a review of listed public authorities’ performance of the employment duties. All listed authorities’ are required to take steps to gather and use employee information recording: composition of its employees in relation to their relevant protected characteristics; and recruitment, development and retention of employees in relation to their relevant protected characteristics.

The findings of this work were published September 2013 in Measuring Up? Report 2: Monitoring public authorities’ performance of the employment duties.

Stage 3

We commissioned a more in-depth review of listed public authorities’ equality outcomes.

In November 2013 we published Measuring Up? 3 which reports on the extent to which public bodies have met their legal duties in relation to publishing equality outcomes and information on their employment practices and is available here: Measuring Up? Report 3: Monitoring public authorities' performance of the Scottish Specific Duties.

Stage 4

In September 2015 we published 2 reports for Measuring Up? 4, a performance report and practice report, which focused on the extent to which 239 listed public bodies were able to report against key equality data and outcomes including:

• the diversity of their staff composition
• how different people who share the same protected characteristic fared in recruitment, development and retention;
• gender pay gap figures
• their progress to date in meeting the equality outcomes they set in 2013

Stage 5

In August 2016 we published a review of Scottish Ministers’ progress in meeting their specific duty (Measuring Up? 5). This report assesses the extent to which Scottish Ministers have made progress against their plans, set out in December 2013, to assist public authorities in Scotland to better perform the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Stage 6

We monitored newly listed public authorities’, including Integration Joint Boards, against the requirements to publish information under the Scotland Specific Duties.

We published the results of this assessment in November 2016 (Measuring Up? 6) Monitoring Public Authorities Performance Against the Scottish Specific Equality Duties 2016

Stage 7

Measuring Up? 7 - Public Authorities' performance in  meeting the Scotland Specific Equality Duties 2017 was published in December 2017 and covered the end of the first four year reporting cycle.