Section 17: Child rights and wellbeing impact assessments
74.Section 17 requires the Scottish Ministers to carry out, and then publish, a child rights and wellbeing impact assessment in respect of provisions of primary and secondary legislation and decisions of a strategic nature that relate to the rights and wellbeing of children (as required by, and in accordance with, the arrangements set out in the Scheme). The purpose of such an impact assessment is to consider the likely effects of the provision or decision on children’s rights and wellbeing and so inform the process of making the legislation or the decision. The Scottish Government has been preparing, and publishing, such impact assessments on a non-statutory basis since June 2015.
75.In relation to secondary legislation, the duty imposed by this section covers subordinate legislation made under both Acts of the Scottish Parliament and Acts of the UK Parliament, so long as it is a Scottish statutory instrument made by the Scottish Ministers (other than commencement orders or regulations). Acts of Sederunt and other court rules, statutory codes of practice, directions and guidance are not included here.
76.The requirement of the Scottish Ministers to carry out an impact assessment in respect of decisions of a strategic nature (subsection (3)) is intended to capture major policy decisions taken in relation to children’s rights and wellbeing. The arrangements for carrying out, and publishing, such impact assessments are to be made in accordance with requirements set out in the Scheme.
77.Subsection (4) requires the Scottish Ministers to carry out and publish a child rights and wellbeing impact assessment in respect of:
decisions to restrict school-age children’s physical attendance at their usual school for reasons related to the SARS-Cov-2 virus (the Covid 19 pandemic was ongoing at the time this provision was included in the Bill for the Act), and
any standards that education authorities have to apply when making any decision about temporarily stopping, or limiting, school-age children’s access to their usual schools (whether they are making those decisions for reasons related to coronavirus or not).
78.The word “school” is defined for the purposes of subsection (4) by reference to the definition in the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 and so covers primary and secondary schools, special schools and nurseries.
