Consultation on the Socio-Economic Duty

Date: 24th July 2017
Category: Child poverty

In 2017, Scotland will become the first part of the UK to introduce the socioeconomic duty. This consultation paper asks for input on this, ahead of guidance that will be developed later in the year.

The socio-economic duty asks particular public authorities to do more to tackle the inequalities of outcome caused by socio-economic disadvantage. In particular, the duty aims to make sure that strategic decisions about the most important issues are carefully thought through so that they are as effective as they can be in tackling socio-economic disadvantage and reducing inequalities of outcome.

This consultation therefore asks for views on these issues:

- Section 1: Whether you agree with definitions of key terms
- Section 2: Which public authorities the duty should apply to
- Section 3: What public authorities could do to show they are meeting the duty
- Section 4: How public authorities could sensibly approach the links between different duties with a socio-economic focus

Scottish Government welcome views from anyone who has an interest in the issues raised by the duty. They would particularly like to hear from people with direct experience of poverty, from public authorities likely to be affected by the duty, and from organisations and individuals working on issues of poverty and disadvantage.

To show how the duty might work in practice, three case studies are set out in an Annex at the back of the consultation paper.

• Access the consultation paper here.
• Visit the Scottish Government webpage here.