Equality Act 2010
Equality law in Scotland
In Scotland, everyone is protected by legislation called the Equality Act 2010, which prohibits discrimination against anyone on the grounds of ‘protected characteristics’. This can be their own characteristics, characteristics someone says they have or thinks they have, or the characteristics of someone they are associated with (a parent, for example).
The protected characteristics are:
Age
Disability
Gender reassignment
Marriage or civil partnership
Pregnancy or maternity
Race, including skin colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
Religion or belief
Sex
Sexual orientation
What is meant by discrimination?
AdRESS’s services are focused on tackling race discrimination.
If someone is treated differently because of their skin colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, this is race discrimination.
Race discrimination doesn’t have to be intentional to be unlawful - it could be a one-off action, the result of a rule or policy, or a regular pattern of behaviour.
There are four main types of discrimination:
Direct discrimination - treating someone less favourably than another pupil on the grounds of race.
Indirect discrimination - if your school or Council education department is applying a particular policy or practice the same way across all pupils disadvantages pupils from a racial or ethnic group.
Harassment - unwanted behaviour that creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for pupils with a protected characteristic or behaviour that violates their dignity. This includes bullying.
Victimisation - punishing someone for making a complaint of discrimination or any other action protected the Equality Act. This also includes negative treatment towards people supporting someone to make a complaint.
Do schools have a duty to challenge racism?
Under the Equality Act 2010, schools and Council education departments (‘Education Authorities’) in Scotland are subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty, which requires public bodies to have due regard to the need to:
Eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and other conduct that is prohibited by the Act
Advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
Foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and people who do not share it
Every school and Council education department in Scotland should be taking proactive steps to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation - this includes checking that there are no practices which could result in less favourable treatment for pupils on the grounds of race.
For example, under this legislation, it is unlawful for a school to put children into sets, subjects or sports classes according to their ethnicity, as the segregation of pupils by race is discrimination. However, this does not mean that schools cannot take targeted action to deal with particular disadvantages affecting children of particular racial or ethnic groups, where this can be shown to be a proportionate way of dealing with the inequalities they face.
Want to learn more?
If you would like more information on the Equality Act 2010 and your rights under it, you can find detailed guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission below:
Equality Act 2010
Your Rights under the Equality Act 2010
Race Discrimination
