Equality and human rights: key differences in Scotland and Northern Ireland
Updating author: Tina McKevitt, consultant editor (Scotland): Gillian MacLellan, consultant editor (Northern Ireland): Gareth Walls
Future developments
Scotland
Public Sector Equality Duty: The Scottish Government's consultation on the operation of the Public Sector Equality Duty in Scotland closed on 11 April 2022. The proposals include extending gender pay gap reporting to cover ethnicity and disability. The Scottish Government published its response to the consultation on 30 November 2022. The Scottish Government has indicated that the regulatory changes will come into force in 2025.
Human rights: On 5 October 2023, the Scottish Government's consultation on a Human Rights Bill for Scotland closed. The Government is proposing to incorporate a range of economic, social and cultural rights into Scots law, so far as is possible within the limits of devolved competence. On 24 January 2024, the Scottish Government published the consultation feedback. The analysis indicates strong support for the incorporation of internationally recognised human rights into the domestic legal framework. The Scottish Government was due to introduce the Bill to Parliament by June 2024, but it now appears to have been delayed to September 2024.
Northern Ireland
Gender pay gap reporting: The Employment Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 introduces various reforms to align some of the employment laws in Northern Ireland with Great Britain, including an obligation on employers to publish gender pay gap information. Under the Act, the Northern Irish Government is required to have made regulations to bring the gender pay gap reporting duties into force no later than 30 June 2017.
While this requirement was not met, the Department for Communities launched a 12-week consultation on 25 November 2024, setting out details on the requirement to disclose and publish information showing whether there is a gender pay gap between male and female employees and, where one exists, to publish an action plan to eliminate those differences. The information will need to include statistics on ethnicity and disability pay gaps. The Northern Irish Government intends the duty to come into force in 2027, with employers expected to publish the first report in April 2028.
