The Scottish Parliament: - Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body - Policies

The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 2005 gives the SPCB what are known as ‘general’ and ‘specific’ duties to promote disability equality. Producing and publishing a Disability Equality Scheme is one of the ‘specific duties’ of the new DDA 2005. The Scheme was required to be published by 5th December 2006. Our Scheme was published in December 2006 and reviewed during 2007. The original scheme can be a found here along with a progress report and updated action plan table from December 2007:

Reviews and Action Plan updates:

The SPCB welcomes both the spirit and the letter of the law and looks forward to working towards making a positive difference for disabled people.

The "Duties"

There is a general duty which applies to all public authorities, plus additional specific duties to support the majority of public authorities in achieving the outcomes required by the general duty.

The SPCB is covered by both the general and specific duties:

When carrying out our functions we must have due regard to the following:

promote equality of opportunity between disabled people and other people;
eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the Disability Discrimination Act;
eliminate harassment of disabled people that is related to their disability;
promote positive attitudes towards disabled people;
encourage participation by disabled people in public life; and
take steps to meet disabled people’s needs, even if this requires more favourable treatment.

The duty covers all of our functions and activities, not just employment and service delivery, but budgeting, procurement, regulatory functions and setting the framework within which we operate.

The specific duties are designed to help us effectively meet the general duty. We must publish a Disability Equality Scheme demonstrating how we intend to fulfil the Disability Equality Duty. This must be in place by 5th December 2006.

Contents of the Scheme

The essential elements that the Disability Equality Scheme must include are:

a statement of how disabled people have been involved in developing the scheme;
the action plan;
arrangements for gathering information about our performance on disability equality;
arrangements for assessing the impact of our activities on disability equality and improving these when necessary; and
details of how we are going to use the information gathered, in particular in reviewing the effectiveness of our action plan and preparing subsequent schemes.

All of which can be found in our Disability Equality Scheme | Disability Equality Scheme (211KB pdf)

Publication of the Scheme

Our Scheme has been written and approved by the SPCB, and is now available by clicking on the following link.

An easy read summary of the Scheme has also been produced and can be found by clicking on the following link: Disability Equality Scheme Easy Read Summary (506KB pdf)

We will also be able to provide the Scheme in alternative formats on request including Braille, large print, audio and BSL. Please contact Mairi Pearson, Equalities Adviser for further details.

Defining Disability

The definition of disability is that used in the Disability Discrmination Act and applies to a wide range of disabilities (from people with alzheimers and arthritis to those with learning disabilities, depression, diabetes, cancer etc). The term ‘disability’ covers both physical and mental impairments that have a substantial and long-term (i.e. has lasted or is expected to last for at least 12 months) effect on the person's ability to carry out “normal” day-to-day activities.