Equality and Human Rights Commission

The Scotland Committee is responsible for ensuring the overall work of the Commission reflects the needs and priorites of Scotland. The Committee sets strategic direction and steers the Commission's work in Scotland. Click here to view the Scotland Committee meeting minutes.

As Chair of the Scotland Committee, Kaliani Lyle is the Commissioner in Scotland and sits on the board of Commissioners headed by Trevor Phillips.

Details of Committee members

Alastair Pringle
Angela O'Hagan
Bob Benson
Di Airey
Elaine Noad
Louise Falconer
Morag McLaughlin
Neelam Bakshi
 

Kaliani Lyle (Chair)

Kaliani Lyle was appointed as the new Scotland Commissioner in 2010, replacing Morag Alexander who had been Chair of the Scotland Committee since 2007.  Kaliani was the Chief Executive of Citizens Advice Scotland between 1998 and 2010 and before that, was Chief Executive of the Scottish Refugee Council.  She also worked for Edinburgh District Council as their first Race Relations Officer. 

Kaliani is currently also a member of Joseph Rowntree Foundation Policy Strategy Group and in 2007 she received the Alastair Hetherington award for humanitarian service by the Institute of Contemporary Scotland.
Kaliani leads the Scotland Committee which is involved in working strategically with the Scottish Government, Local Authorities, UK Government and Parliament to ensure equality and human rights are at the heart of all work carried out.

Alastair Pringle

Alastair Pringle is Head of Patient Focus, Equalities in the Directorate of Healthcare Policy, Strategy, Scottish Government Health Directorates. He leads on implementation of health policy on a range of issues including patients' rights, patient information and equalities strategy and policy for both the Health & Wellbeing portfolio of the Scottish Executive and for NHS Scotland.

This work includes Patient Focus Public Involvement policy, the Fair for All approach and management of health and equalities projects covering a range of different strands. He has been involved in equalities work in the health sector for nearly 20 years. His campaign work has included securing funding for the Men's Health Forum Scotland, a charity considering all aspects of men's health and leading on the NHS LGBT Health Strategy from 2002-2005.

Angela O'Hagan

Angela O'Hagan was Campaigns and Communications Manager at Oxfam in Scotland until September 2006 when she moved on to pursue a PhD in Gender Budget Analysis at Glasgow Caledonian University. In 2005, following a period as Acting Head of Oxfam in Scotland she was one of the leaders in Scotland of Make Poverty History, bringing together a range of organisations and individuals culminating in a march of 250,000 people in Edinburgh and multiple days of action across Scotland.

Angela was with the Equal Opportunities Commission from 1993 to 2001, latterly as Senior Policy Manager. On moving from the EOC, Angela was appointed Director of Carers Scotland, where she also served as Convenor of the Scottish Carers Alliance. Until recently Angela was Vice Chair of Friends of the Earth Scotland.

Angela is also Convenor of the Scottish Women's Budget Group, and a member of the Scottish Government's Equality Proofing Budget Policy and Advisory Group (EPBPAG). Angela also served on the original ministerial Scottish Social Inclusion Network from 1999-2002.

Bob Benson

Bob Benson was the Executive Director, Community Development at disability charity, SCOPE, leading SCOPE's strategy to deliver disability equality throughout England and Wales, with the further goal of influencing how national organisations work in partnership with their members, other disability organisations and other stakeholders.

Prior to this he spent 5 years as the Scotland Director of the Disability Rights Commission, where he oversaw the setting up of the DRC in Scotland. Bob had campaigned for many years for the establishment of the DRC, amongst other issues, in his role as director of the charity Disability Scotland. Bob was also a member of the UK Government Disability Taskforce and the UK Disability Employment Advisory Group.

Di Airey

Di Airey is an equality and diversity consultant, and the Director of Diversity Dynamics. Prior to setting up Diversity Dynamics Ltd in early 2004 Di spent 15 years in Human Resources roles within the holiday industry, financial services and motor industries.

For the last 5 years of employment she specialised in diversity, development and change management, and held Diversity Manager Roles in the Prudential and in Daimler Chrysler UK Ltd.

Di is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and an accredited consultant for their In-Company Solutions division. She works as an associate to other diversity consultancies and voluntarily for a social enterprise business - quit&save - supporting the design and delivery of smoking cessation workshops for communities and organisations. She has many clients in the private sector and understands the business world in Scotland.

She is currently in the final dissertation stage of her Masters degree in Change Agent Skills and Strategies (University of Surrey); her research focuses on examining the opportunities to change beliefs and prejudices at an individual and organisational level.

Elaine Noad

As a member of the Parole Board, Elaine has participated in work with the Scottish Prison Service to improve their support to prisoners, particularly prisoners with mental health problems or learning disabilities. 

As a volunteer member of a Housing Association management committee, Elaine encouraged other committee members to agree a policy change to provide furnished accommodation for asylum seekers in Glasgow, and provide an enhanced interpreter service for tenants from BME groups in Glasgow. As a director of a local authority, Elaine (with a solicitor) ran seminars for managers about the implications of the Human Rights Act 1998, and helped them to identify policies which required to be amended to meet the legislation.

As Scottish Commissioner for the Disability Rights Commission, Elaine worked with DRC staff to get the agreement of Scottish civil servants to press Westminster colleagues to expand the remit of Additional Support for Learning tribunals in Scotland to include equalities issues (similar to the rest of the UK). As a Scottish Government Non Executive Director (until December 2011) Elaine sits on the Scottish Government Equalities and Diversity Board. 

Louise Falconer

Louise Falconer is a Principal Policy Officer at Glasgow City Council, working in the Policy Development Unit. The Unit develops innovative policy ideas to tackle regeneration and social inclusion issues in the City.

Louise moved to Scotland to take up a position in Oxfam in the gender and regeneration programme, aimed at making governmental anti-poverty policies more responsive to the needs of women. Whilst at Oxfam, Louise was also employed as a Global Gender Adviser and provided gender mainstreaming support to staff and partners around the world. After leaving Oxfam Louise worked in the Scottish Parliament as a Senior Legal Researcher.

Prior to this, Louise worked in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in the Australia Government developing policy around work and family and women's economic rights. In 2002 Louise won a scholarship to complete a Masters degree in Womens Law at the University of British Columbia, Canada and won several international prizes for her thesis. Louise has also served on the Board of Shakti Womens Aid. 

Morag McLaughlin

Morag McLaughlin was Area Procurator Fiscal for Lothian and Borders before retiring from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in June 2011. In her 21 years as a prosecutor, she held several senior posts, including Head of Policy, leading on the formulation and implementation of departmental policy, and Area Procurator Fiscal for Grampian. In those roles she developed expertise in equality matters in relation to public service and the investigation and prosecution of crime.

Latterly she was appointed as COPFS corporate lead on equality, responsible for developing departmental strategy, chairing the departmental Equality Strategy Working Group, advising Scottish Law Officers and senior colleagues on equality matters and implementing the provisions of the Equality Act 2010.

Neelam Bakshi

Neelam Bakshi is a freelance coach, management consultant and trainer.  She has over 20 years experience in the public sector. Neelam has extensive experience of governance as a non-executive director in the voluntary, academic and public sectors. She served as a non-executive director of NHS Health Scotland (2003-2011) where she was Chair of the Staff Governance Committee and Board Equality Lead and is currently a non-executive director with the NHS Scottish Ambulance Service and with the Scottish Government. She is also a non-legal member of Employment Tribunals.

Neelam has extensive experience of equality which started in inter-faith work as a teenager, developing later into community and political activism. As an elected councillor in the former Strathclyde Regional Council (1990-1996) she chaired strategic committees and multi-agency working groups. She was a member of the Scotland Advisory Committee of the Equal Opportunities Commission (1993-2007), and of the GB taskforce considering representation of minority ethnic women in public life for the Government Equalities Office (2008-2009). Her professional experience includes being a senior manager and human resources equality advisor in a large unitary local authority. Her consultancy experience encompasses all aspects of working with public sector duties (from development, implementation and quality assurance of equality strategies to supporting formal investigations), as well as consultation and research into equality and human rights.