The UK Government is proposing legislation to extend the current duties on public bodies to promote race, disability and gender equality, to fully include gender reassignment, sexual orientation, age, and religion/belief.

Devolved Scottish legislation already places a duty on many public bodies, including local councils and NHS boards, to carry out their functions in a manner that encourages equal opportunities, as defined in the Scotland Act, including for LGBT people.

Although much of the equality legislation is reserved to Westminster, there is a crucial role to be played by the Scottish Executive and Parliament in ensuring equal and fair access to services, and to employment, in Scotland.

This will need to be done in partnership with the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) and with the LGBT voluntary sector. That sector has a key part to play in providing information, advice and support to LGBT people, and to service providers and employers, but needs significant development to meet those demands.

• The Executive should redouble its efforts to mainstream equality, including LGBT equality, across its own operations.
• The Executive should take steps to support the sustainable development of the LGBT voluntary sector across Scotland.
• Working with the CEHR and the LGBT voluntary sector, the Executive should promote equality and fairness in employment and access to goods and services across Scotland, by:
  • supporting the development of expertise and guidance on LGBT equality, across the public sector
  • promoting the benefits of an approach based on equality and fairness, including for LGBT people, across all sectors of the Scottish economy
  • commissioning and promoting research into, and monitoring of, inequalities affecting LGBT people in Scotland.