Publications and Outputs

A data report presented to the Scottish Policy Authority (SPA) today shows that almost a third of all Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) were issued to people living in the top 10% most deprived communities of Scotland.  Moreover, FPNs were twelve times more likely to be issued to people living in the 10% most deprived parts of Scotland compared to those living in the 10% least deprived areas.

A research review, co-authored by UI Co-Director Professor Emer Smyth and fellow collaborators at the ESRI, finds that action is needed to address the short and longer-term impacts of COVID-19 response on children and young people.

The report draws on existing and emerging Irish and international research on the effects of the pandemic restrictions on children and young people. In particular, the report reviews research evidence in the areas of family and peer relationships, health and wellbeing, education (from early childhood to third-level) and post-school transitions to provide insights into the potential consequences of the current crisis from infancy to early adulthood.

The Understanding Inequalities project has submitted evidence to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Housing and Social Mobility in response to their national inquiry into housing and employment, which is aimed at tackling the employment and earnings gap in social housing.

Our evidence submission focused on answering the following research questions posed by the group:

• What is the relationship between social housing and employment? and
• What can Government do to support the social housing sector and tenants, and to reduce the social
  housing employment and earnings gap?

Read the full submission below.

In October 2019, Understanding Inequalities held a joint event with the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR) and Police Scotland to discuss data-informed approaches to policing, looking at the use of police data to assess demand, inform deployment and address priorities.

We have produced a short summary report which draws together themes from the presentations and facilitated discussion. These themes included the data priorities for policing in Scotland, the various different data sources that are currently being used to inform policing, the challenges associated with accessing and linking types of data, while the report also highlights the potential solutions and ways of working across organisations to mitigate some of these challenges. 

Read the report in full here.