CAIRNGORMS

NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY UGH­DAR­RAS PAIRC NÀISEANTA A’ MHON­AIDH RUAIDH

Equal­ity Impact Assess­ment (EqIA)

Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2022 — 2027

Back­ground

The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan (NPPP) sets out how all those with a respons­ib­il­ity for the Park will co-ordin­ate their work to tackle the most import­ant issues and deliv­er the four aims’ of Nation­al Parks in Scot­land col­lect­ively. In par­tic­u­lar, the NPPP:

• Sets out the vis­ion and over­arch­ing strategy for man­aging the Park.
• Guides the work of all pub­lic bod­ies and oth­er part­ners to deliv­er the aims of the Park.
• Provides the stra­tegic con­text for the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan.
• Sets out the region­al land use frame­work and region­al spa­tial strategy for the Park.
• Sets out the eco­nom­ic and sus­tain­able tour­ism strategy for the Park.

The NPPP is arranged in three sec­tions: Nature, People and Place. In each sec­tion we set out long-term object­ives up to 2045 (the year Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment has com­mit­ted to achiev­ing net zero), fol­lowed by a set of policies and actions for the next five years. The Part­ner­ship Plan is in turn under­pinned by a series of action plans,

Scope

This equal­ity impact assess­ment focuses on the poten­tial impact of the NPPP in rela­tion to the Nation­al Park’s com­munit­ies, res­id­ents, vis­it­ors as well as stake­hold­ers, investors and the busi­ness com­munity; vis­it­ors. Spe­cific­ally, it focusses on groups with pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ics under Equal­ity Act 2010. This impact assess­ment will cover:

• Legis­lat­ive Responsibilities
• Evid­ence
• Con­sulta­tion
• Impact
• Actions taken to date

The Four Aims of Scot­tish Nation­al Parks are to be pur­sued col­lect­ively unless there is con­flict between the first aim and any of the oth­ers, when great­er weight must be giv­en to the first aim (as set out in Sec­tion 9.6 of the Nation­al Parks (Scot­land) Act 2000).

1. To con­serve and enhance the nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age of the area.
2. To pro­mote sus­tain­able use of the nat­ur­al resources of the area.
3. To pro­mote under­stand­ing and enjoy­ment (includ­ing enjoy­ment in the form of recre­ation) of the spe­cial qual­it­ies of the area by the public.
4. To pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment of the area’s communities.

• Future actions required.
• Recog­nised timeline for updates and review.

The draft NPPP will be con­sul­ted on in pub­lic, before being final­ised and signed off by the Scot­tish Min­is­ters. Fur­ther inform­a­tion on its poten­tial impact on groups with pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ics may be gathered dur­ing the con­sulta­tion and via indi­vidu­al actions or pro­jects dur­ing its implementation.

Legis­lat­ive Responsibilities

The Equal­ity Act (2010) came into force in April 2010 and puts a gen­er­al duty on pub­lic author­it­ies to have due regard to the need to elim­in­ate unlaw­ful dis­crim­in­a­tion, advance equal­ity of oppor­tun­ity and foster good rela­tions. In addi­tion the spe­cif­ic duties for Scot­tish pub­lic author­it­ies require that CNPA assesses the impact on equal­ity groups of all pro­posed new or revised policy or prac­tice against the needs of the gen­er­al duty.

Under the Equal­ity Act (2010) the fol­low­ing pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ics are age, dis­ab­il­ity, gender reas­sign­ment, mar­riage and civil part­ner­ship, preg­nancy and mater­nity, race, reli­gion or belief, sex, and sexu­al ori­ent­a­tion. While there is a legis­lat­ive respons­ib­il­ity to assess the impact on these groups, CNPA intends to assess any groups where there is evid­ence of adverse impact for example socio-eco­nom­ic status and rurality.

Assess­ing impact is an effect­ive way of improv­ing policy devel­op­ment and ser­vice deliv­ery, mak­ing sure we con­sider the needs of the Nation­al Park’s com­munit­ies and vis­it­ors; identi­fy poten­tial steps to advance equal­ity and foster good rela­tions; and do not dis­crim­in­ate unlawfully.

Evid­ence

In assess­ing the impact this EqlA has taken into account data from Census 2011, Scot­tish Index of Mul­tiple Depriva­tion 2020 (SIMD) and Cairngorms Vis­it­or Sur­vey 2020.

Inform­a­tion from EqlAs car­ried out for cur­rent Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity plans, policies and pro­grammes that are closely related to the NPPP and oth­er doc­u­ments related to equal­it­ies have been taken into account:

• EqlAs car­ried out for the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan 2021 and the Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan 2017 – 2022,
• EqlAs car­ried out for oth­er plans pro­duced for the Cairngorms Nation­al Park,
• Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Equal­ity Out­comes 2021 – 2024,
• Gen­er­ic EqlAs car­ried out for oth­er pub­lic­a­tions (which provide evid­ence for the pub­lic­a­tion of the NPPP) and web­sites (which provide evid­ence for any web based mater­i­al asso­ci­ated with the NPPP), and
• Nation­al Stand­ards for Com­munity Engagement.

Con­sulta­tion under­taken to date

• Meet­ings with key Stakeholders
• Dis­cus­sion with Cairngorms Equal­ity Advis­ory Forum
• Inform­al con­sulta­tion using social media and Com­mon­place engage­ment plat­form: https://​cairngorms​views​.com​mon​place​.is/

Con­sulta­tion Proposed

• Fur­ther con­sulta­tion on the draft NPPP and EqIA is pro­posed through the pub­lic con­sulta­tion peri­od and tar­geted pro­mo­tion with young people and minor­ity eth­nic groups.

Impact

The NPPP sets out stra­tegic dir­ec­tion, object­ives, policies and actions, identi­fy­ing the things that will make the biggest con­tri­bu­tion to a suc­cess­ful Nation­al Park over the com­ing years. How­ever, it should be noted that the NPPP is a stra­tegic doc­u­ment and many of its object­ives, policies and actions are a sign­post to future detailed pro­jects and deliv­ery that will them­selves may require EqIA.

Mon­it­or­ing and Review

This impact assess­ment will con­tin­ue to be reviewed as the con­sulta­tion on the NPPP is car­ried out. Fol­low­ing the con­sulta­tion, the EqlA will be reviewed in light of changes made to the NPPP. Many of the pro­jects and actions that will deliv­er the NPPP will be sub­ject to their own more spe­cif­ic EqlAs.

Equal­ity Group	Impact	Mit­ig­a­tion	Fur­ther actions
Age	The NPPP will seek to increase access­ib­il­ity to the Park and the abil­ity of people of all ages, includ­ing under-rep­res­en­ted groups such as young people, to exper­i­ence and enjoy its spe­cial qual­it­ies. This impact is likely to be pos­it­ive. The NPPP also acts as the Region­al Spa­tial Strategy (RSS) for the Nation­al Park, which forms part of the suite of plan­ning policy doc­u­ments, includ­ing the Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plan (LDP). While the NPPP	Due to the NPPP being a high level doc­u­ment, many of the policies and object­ives are too vague to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment it is not pos­sible to sug­gest spe­cif­ic long term mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures. Con­sulta­tion mater­i­als will be made as access­ible as pos­sible, includ­ing using plain Eng­lish, social media, phys­ic­al cop­ies and the Com­mon­place engage­ment plat­form. The Cairngorms Youth Engage­ment Team	Tar­geted con­sulta­tion with young­er people, includ­ing using the Cairngorms Youth Action Team as a focus group. Fur­ther dis­cus­sion with the Cairngorms Equal­it­ies Advis­ory Forum.
	will not itself identi­fy devel­op­ment land and pro­pos­als for the pro­vi­sion of facil­it­ies and ser­vices, it will provide dir­ec­tion for the next LDP and does set out a set­tle­ment strategy. This impact is likely to be pos­it­ive as the aim is to improve the social, eco­nom­ic and social sus­tain­ab­il­ity of the area. Poten­tial neg­at­ive impacts may arise if young people do not par­ti­cip­ate in the consultation.	will be con­sul­ted expli­citly. The CNPA has con­trac­ted a mar­ket research com­pany to provide advice on the tar­get­ing of com­mu­nic­a­tions and con­sulta­tion to groups that are harder to reach or under­rep­res­en­ted on society.
Equal­ity Group	Impact	Mit­ig­a­tion	Fur­ther actions
Dis­ab­il­ity	The Nation­al Park Part­ner­ship Plan will seek to increase access­ib­il­ity to the Park and the abil­ity of all people to exper­i­ence and enjoy its spe­cial qual­it­ies. This impact is likely to be pos­it­ive. Fur­ther­more, its role as an RSS means that it includes a ​‘set­tle­ment strategy’ that pro­motes social, eco­nom­ic and envir­on­ment­al sus­tain­ab­il­ity. Poten­tial medi­um neg­at­ive impacts may arise	Due to the NPPP being a high level doc­u­ment, many of the policies and object­ives are too vague to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment it is not pos­sible to sug­gest spe­cif­ic long term mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures. Con­sulta­tion mater­i­als will be made as access­ible as pos­sible, includ­ing using plain Eng­lish, social media, phys­ic­al cop­ies and the Com­mon­place engage­ment plat­form. Doc­u­ments will be in form that can be read elec­tron­ic­ally. The Cairngorms Equal­it­ies Advis­ory For­um will be asked to pro­mote and	Fur­ther dis­cus­sion with the Cairngorms Equal­it­ies Advis­ory Forum.
	as doc­u­ment­a­tion and con­sulta­tion mater­i­al may not be eas­ily access­ible to all groups.	share the con­sulta­tion through their net­works. The CNPA has con­trac­ted a mar­ket research com­pany to provide advice on the tar­get­ing of com­mu­nic­a­tions and con­sulta­tion to groups that are harder to reach or under­rep­res­en­ted on society.
Gender Reas­sign­ment	Neut­ral impact on this group.	N/A

Equal­ity Group	Impact	Mit­ig­a­tion	Fur­ther actions
Mar­riage / Civil Partnership	Neut­ral impact on this group.	N/A
Preg­nancy / Maternity	Neut­ral impact on this group.	N/A
Race	The NPPP will seek to increase access­ib­il­ity to the Park and the abil­ity of all ages, includ­ing under-rep­res­en­ted groups such as young people, to exper­i­ence and enjoy its spe­cial qual­it­ies. This impact is likely to be pos­it­ive. Poten­tial neg­at­ive impacts may arise if doc­u­ment­a­tion and con­sulta­tion mater­i­al may not be eas­ily access­ible and/​or under­stood by non-Eng­lish speak­ers. Fur­ther­more, the Nation­al Park has a very low res­id­ent BAME pop­u­la­tion who may be	Due to the NPPP being a high level doc­u­ment, many of the policies and object­ives are too vague to enable mean­ing­ful assess­ment it is not pos­sible to sug­gest spe­cif­ic long term mit­ig­a­tion meas­ures. Con­sulta­tion mater­i­als will be made as access­ible as pos­sible, includ­ing using plain Eng­lish, social media, phys­ic­al cop­ies and the Com­mon­place engage­ment plat­form. Doc­u­ments may be trans­lated on request. The con­sulta­tion will tar­get these groups through Back­bone project.	Fur­ther dis­cus­sion with the Cairngorms Equal­it­ies Advis­ory Forum.
	hard to reach. BAME people also account for a low pro­por­tion of vis­it­ors again caus­ing poten­tial con­sulta­tion issues.	The CNPA has con­trac­ted a mar­ket research com­pany to provide advice on the tar­get­ing of com­mu­nic­a­tions and con­sulta­tion to groups that are harder to reach or under­rep­res­en­ted on society.

Equal­ity Group	Impact	Mit­ig­a­tion	Fur­ther actions
Reli­gion and Belief	Neut­ral impact on this group.	N/A
Sex (gender)	Neut­ral impact on this group.	N/A
Sexu­al Orientation	Neut­ral impact on this group.	N/A

Com­pleted by:

Dan Har­ris, Plan­ning Man­ager (For­ward Plan­ning and Ser­vice Improvement)

Gav­in Miles, Head of Stra­tegic Planning