The Scottish Government is committed to improving how equality is considered in policy and the budget.
On 23 September 2009 the Scottish Government published an Equality Statement supporting the draft Budget 2010-11 setting out the actions it has taken and is planning to ensure that the public money it spends contributes to greater equality in Scotland.
The Government is working in partnership with the Equality and Budget Advisory Group (EBAG) to:
- Provide advice and support for the mainstreaming of equality in policy with the appropriate allocation of resources.
- Contribute to mapping the pathway between evidence, policy and spend.
- Improve the presentation of equality information in the Scottish budget documents.
- Contribute to improved commitment to and awareness of mainstreaming equality into policy and budget processes.
EBAG Membership includes representatives from:
- Scottish Government Equality Unit
- Scottish Government Finance Directorate
- Scottish Women's Budget Group
- Equality and Human Rights Commission
- Equality Network
- COSLA
- Scottish Government Communities Analytical Services
- Scottish Government Public Bodies Policy
- Scottish Government Strategy and Ministerial Support Directorate (as required)
- Scottish Government Public Service Reform Directorate (as required)
Minutes of Equality and Budget Advisory Group (EBAG) meetings
Minutes of Equality Proofing Budget and Policy Advisory Group (EPBPAG) (now EBAG) meetings
Scottish Government Budget and Economic Strategy
The Scottish Government published its new Economic Strategy on November 13, 2007, and set out its budget the day after.
The purpose of the economic strategy is to focus the Scottish Government and public services on creating a more successful country, with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth. The Budget Spending Review 2007 outlines the Government's spending plans for the next three years.
Gender Impact Analysis and the Scottish Budget: Sport and Health Pilots
This report is the result of work commissioned by the Scottish Government's Equality Unit in order to support the development of appropriate tools for an equalities analysis of the budget.
This is an independent, and necessarily high-level, piece of work undertaken by independent researchers who worked with Scottish Government officials to try to find a method to assess the equality impact of mainstream spend and then to devise a method which could be tailored to fit existing Government practice, with a view to using that method to assess the equality impact of spend on all equality groups. This is not a report about smoking cessation or sports policy; these policy areas kindly agreed to be the methodological focus for this work in order to explore the issues relating to gender sensitive budgeting and equality matters. The report, as published, does not necessarily reflect the current state of play in these two policy areas.
The pilot was carried out in three phases:
Phase One: Two brief literature reviews identified gender differences relating to smoking in young people and sport and young people. In parallel - the mapping of policy and spending processes in Health and Education to identify the link between policy and spend within these departments (these literature reviews will be published in due course).
Phase Two: Work with policy and spending officials determined how gender equality impact analysis could be integrated into existing policy and spending processes.
Phase Three: A report with recommendations, action plan and guidance.
The work undertaken to develop tools for gender analysis of the budget have helped the Scottish Government to finalise the developments if its equality impact assessment tool for policy and practice. Work on the pilots continues and any further developments will be posted on the Scottish Government's website.