Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many equalities impact assessments his Department completed in each of the last five years for which data is available.

Under the Public Sector Equality Duty (the Duty) all public authorities, including Government departments, are required by law to ensure that they have due regard to certain equality considerations when carrying out their functions. While ‘equality impact assessments’ may be produced, there is no legal requirement for duty assessments to be recorded in a specific format. We do not centrally monitor assessments in this area but are confident that we are meeting the Duty in our decision-making processes.