PHS FOI 2026-002508
- Date of request
- 05 October 2026
- Date of response
- 05 October 2026
- FOI request ID
- PHS FOI 2026-002508
- Corporate information
Request
“Fourteen years after the publication of the original Waiting Times guidance and sixteen years since the passage of the Equality Act 2010, NHS Boards remain unable to meet their general equality duty regarding how the waiting times system operates in Scotland. Both government and Public Health Scotland, partners in the waiting times system, have made it clear:
Public Health Scotland
With regards the application and impact of waiting times guidance, responsibility for demonstrating compliance with the Public Sector Equality Duty sits with NHS boards providing services to patients.
Scottish government
In addition, NHS Boards remain responsible for complying with their duties under the Equality Act 2010, including considering any equality impacts arising from the delivery of services and taking appropriate action where issues are identified.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission have also issued guidance on carrying out Equality Impact Assessments:
The actual impact of your policy will only be known once it has been introduced and implemented. Therefore, systems to enable monitoring and review of the actual impact of your policy form an important part of EIA processes and should be clearly set out and understood by everyone involved.
The general equality duty is still applicable to the ongoing operation of your policies, even where they have been subject to an EIA. You need to be able to satisfy yourself on an ongoing basis that you are continuing to meet each of the needs of the general equality duty.
The attached copy research report, drawing on responses to FoI requests from Boards themselves, reveals that with no monitoring [and data gathering] of the actual impact of the system on patients and service users, it inevitably follows that NHS Boards have no analysis reports checking if discrimination is present in how patients and service users are actually accessing specialities in the Waiting Times system. NHS Boards remain unable to meet their general equality duty regarding how the waiting times system operates. Crucially, they are failing to routinely gather adequate data to assess whether or not the waiting time systems create discriminatory barriers for patients with protected characteristics seeking treatment.
In light of this, I write to ask what your plans are to ensure that Boards are made aware that they must fully meet the expectations of government and Public Health Scotland in carrying out their duties under the Equality Act 2010 for service users sharing any of the protected characteristics, as well as follow the guidance published by the EHRC in being able to satisfy themselves, on an ongoing basis, that they are continuing to meet each of the needs of the general equality duty. I would imagine you would also want the Waiting Times system to be evidenced, on an ongoing basis, as discrimination-free, before government embarks on any major re-organisation the NHS in Scotland.”