Consumer Duty Report 2025

The Consumer Scotland Act 2020 places a responsibility on all relevant public authorities to comply with the consumer duty, which comes fully into force on 1 April 2025. The Act defines a consumer as ‘an individual or small business who buys, uses or receives goods or services in Scotland, or could potentially do so, supplied by a public authority or public body’. As Scotland’s national awarding body, SQA’s consumers will include learners, partners (including contracted suppliers and SQA-approved centres), customers (internal and external), and stakeholders.

The consumer duty aims to put consumer interests at the heart of strategic decision-making across the public sector to deliver better policy outcomes for Scotland. It is intended to ensure better quality services and outcomes for consumers.

The Consumer Scotland Act 2020 imposes a duty on public authorities to:

The report outlines the steps taken by SQA to date that comply with the consumer duty as mandated by the Consumer Scotland Act 2020, including the impact assessment approach that will be undertaken by all colleagues, to align with other impact assessments including Equality Impact Assessments (EqIA), Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessments (CRWIAs) and Island Community Impact Assessments (ICIAs).

As SQA transitions to Qualifications Scotland, there may be changes to the methods used to engage with consumers and the approach to impact assessments. However, any changes and progress made will be included in the progress reports published by Qualifications Scotland.