The Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 states that we should publish an Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) alongside our community justice plan. This shows that we have assessed the impact of our plan – as a new plan – against the public sector equality duty in the Equality Act 2010.
The Equality Impact Assessment lets us review what impact the plan will have in relation to:
- Eliminating unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
- Advancing equality of opportunity
- Fostering good relations
This way we can make sure that we are not adversely affecting or discriminating against any of the different groups in the community and we are promoting equality.
While we were developing our community justice plan, we also worked with local public sector agencies to develop the first set of Ayrshire Shared Equality Outcomes. Our plan includes a Commitment called ‘Equalities for All’ which refers to these shared equality outcomes and which notes we will develop specific equalities actions relating to people in the justice system in 2017-18.