Equality Act duties
Equal pay
We’re committed to fulfilling the three key elements of the public sector equality duty (PSED), as defined in the Equality Act 2010.
As a local authority we need to:
- Eliminate discrimination, harassment, victimisation and any other conduct that is prohibited by or under the Equality Act.
- Advance equality of opportunity between colleagues with a protected characteristic and colleagues without a protected characteristic.
- Foster good relations between colleagues with a protected characteristic and colleagues without a protected characteristic.
Under the equal pay provisions of the Act, workforce groups performing equal work should receive equal pay.
We outline our commitment and approach to equal pay at the Council in our equal pay policy statement 2023 to 2027.
Our equal pay audit report 2025 was reported at the Council’s Finance and Resources Committee on 17 November 2025.
Pay gap
We’re bound by duties arising from the Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 to publish gender pay gap information.
The Equality Act will change in April 2026 to include statutory reporting for ethnicity and disability pay gaps which are already included in our annual reporting.
The Act requires us to report every two years, but we do this annually for transparency and monitoring.
Our 2025 pay gap analysis was reported at the Council’s Finance and Resources Committee on 17 November 2025, alongside our updated EDI action plan for 2025 to 2026 that outlines the steps we’re taking to improve our pay gaps.
Insight from data analysis
Findings from pay gap analysis can:
- point to structural and systemic barriers to equality of opportunity for groups who share a protected characteristic
- indicate a more pronounced disparity when taking account of intersecting characteristics, such as the pay gap between black female workers, compared to white male workers.
Similarly, the equal pay audit
- helps determine if we are rewarding colleagues fairly and promoting equal pay for equal work
- reviews whether positive or negative gaps are the result of bias in favour of a particular protected characteristic, such as sex, ethnicity or disability.
Information gathered about the equalities profile of our workforce is used to analyse a range of activities and outputs, including
- Attraction
- Retention
- Recruitment
- Career progression
- Occupational segregation
- Drawing conclusions about the extent to which differing outcomes relate to differing protected characteristics.
While pay gap analysis, analysis of our workforce profile and our equal pay audit provide information about what may be the potential cause of difference in outcome between different groups, the activity required to address these gaps falls under the remit of the workforce equality, diversity and inclusion strategy aims and action plans.
Further information
Pay gap reporting and historical data is available on our downloads page.