Edinburgh Napier University

  This evidence review was commissioned by the Scottish Government and undertaken by the Employment Research Institute, Edinburgh Napier University.

The overall aim is to review and summarise UK and international evidence on the impact of reduced spending on equalities groups: people with a disability; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT); gender; ethnicity; religion; and age. Emphasis is given to evidence on what has happened in the past, although note is made of estimates of what might happen due to reduced spending in the future.

Specifically this report examines 3 potential effects of spending cuts:

• Job losses in the public sector
• Access to the types of public services that are funded by the Scottish Government (which may have impacts on service provision and on contractors in the private or third sectors)
• Welfare and tax issues that are reserved to the UK government (and hence are of less likely to be of interest to the Scottish Government).

As well as addressing cuts in the public sector this report also considers the effect on the Third sector. These organisations are sometimes heavily funded by the public sector and have increasingly been responsible for public service provision.