Aberdeenshire Licensing Board's Equality Policy 2025 - 2029

What you told us

The majority of respondents supported the Board’s Draft Equality Policy.

• 50% of respondents in full.

• 25% of respondents in part.

The respondent who supported the policy in part felt that this could be enhanced by including more specific measures highlighting a reduction in any equalities complaints. The respondent who did not support the policy felt that this was simply unnecessary.

What we're doing

The comments received were considered by officers and the draft policy was updated prior to consideration by the Board. Officers included further measures based on the management of complaints.

Officers ensured that all comments received were presented to the Board as part of the final report and that additional clarification on these was provided. These addressed the concerns that the policy was unnecessary, confirming that this was a statutory requirement and one which is fully supported by the Board, this being integral to the work that they do.

These also addressed the nature of the new measures added and provided an explanation as to why the specific measure put forward within the consultation i.e. ‘a reduction in equalities complaints’ could not be included, this was because no such complaints had ever been received by the Board.

The Board considered these comments and the updated draft policy at their meeting on the 30^th of April 2025 and approved the Policy, subject to this coming back for consideration once further guidance has been published regarding the UK Supreme Court’s decision in ‘the case ‘For Women Scotland Ltd. v The Scottish Members (UKSC/2024/0042)’ and the definition of ‘sex’ for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010..

The policy is a living document, the Board will monitor this throughout its lifetime and welcome any further comments and suggestions in respect of this, details of how you this can be done can be found within the Policy which is available here.

The original consultation can be found here: Aberdeenshire Licensing Board's Equality Policy 2025 - 2029 | Engage Aberdeenshire