Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has responded to the Equalities and Human Rights Committee’s inquiry into the impacts of COVID-19.
The response draws on data collected which allows CAS to analyse the characteristics of people seeking advice during the pandemic.
That data suggests that clients seeking advice on COVID-19 related issues are no more likely than clients at Citizens Advice Bureaux as a whole to be from protected groups under the Equality Act 2010.
In view of this, CAS considers that the Scottish Government should adopt a broad approach to tackling the human rights impact of COVID-19, considering its effects across the Scottish population as a whole.
CAS also draws the Committee’s attention to the proportionally large rise in requests for employment-related advice since the start of the pandemic, which suggests that measures responding to the employment impacts of the pandemic will play an important role in any COVID response.