Annex - Further Information on Legislation and Guidance

Design Tools

Design Process

Only personnel who have all of the relevant required skills and experience at all stages in the process should be engaged, including when designing the project brief. The RIBA Plan of Work has a design cycle and may be useful (see link below).

Road and Street Design

Guidance on accessibility requirements and the application of tactile paving surfaces to support these requirements (see link below).

A policy statement for street design in Scotland, covering overview, detail, and process (see link below).

Guidance on the application of Designing Streets to different local road contexts (see link below).

Guidance for cycling infrastructure design on all roads, streets, and paths in Scotland (see link below).

Transport Scotland’s requirements for the inclusive design of road infrastructure (see link below).

A suite of documents which contains requirements and advice relating to works on motorway and all-purpose trunk roads (see link below).

Equality Act and Public Sector Equality Duty

The Equality Act extends the circumstances in which a person is protected against discrimination, harassment, or victimisation because of a protected characteristic. The public sector equality duty (or general duty) in the Equality Act 2010 came into force in 2011.

It means Scottish public authorities must have “due regard” to the need to:

  1. eliminate unlawful discrimination.
  2. advance equality of opportunity
  3. foster good relations.

In 2012 Scottish Ministers made regulations that placed specific duties on Scottish public bodies to help them meet the general duty. These are also known as the Scottish Specific Duties (see link below)

For Public Sector Organisations, and for organisations undertaking work for Public Sector Organisations on street design, the public sector equality duty (Chapter 1 of Part 11 in the Equality Act 2010 Chapter 15) is a legal requirement.

Reasonable Adjustments

The Equality Act 2010 requires service providers to make reasonable adjustments in circumstances where a disabled person is placed at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with non-disabled people.

That requirement covers changing the way things are done; making changes to the built environment; and providing auxiliary aids and services. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has produced a Code of Practice that gives more information on the application of reasonable adjustments (See link below).

EqIA process and templates

Each Public Sector organisation will have its own process and templates for the EqIA process. It is important to follow these to ensure the EqIA meets the organisation’s requirements, as it is the organisation’s duty to meet the public sector equality duty.

The public sector duty extends to organisations contracted to carry out work for a public sector body. Therefore, the requirements for the organisation to meet these should be made clear in the procurement process.

Public sector bodies cannot abdicate or delegate their responsibility for meeting the public sector equality duty by ‘contracting out’ functions. Where a partner’s functions will be carried out by an external supplier, both the partner and the contractor have responsibility for meeting the duty. If an external organisation is conducting functions on behalf of the partnership, then the public sector organisation needs to make sure that equality is given due regard.

Engagement

This guidance details the additional detail for community engagement for street design projects. The standards can be found in the link below.

Legislation