The Government consult the Equality and Human Rights Commission on an ongoing basis and I am happy to write to the noble Lord to address the specific point about what consultation there has been on this.
Scottish Ministers may specify Scottish public authorities which are to be subject to the PSED; for example, under their devolved powers in relation to
the PSED they can require gender pay gap information to be published by Scottish public authorities, something that the Government are now also planning to implement for larger private employers across Great Britain. To devolve the duty risks the creation of additional burdens for private and voluntary sector bodies that provide some public services, through excessive contractual requirements imposed by Scottish public bodies on their suppliers; for example, requiring Scottish public bodies to ensure that private sector providers report on their gender pay gaps or carry out gender pay audits as a contractual condition would be burdensome, especially to smaller employers. It would also alter the careful balance we have struck between delivering a package of measures to implement the Smith commission and maintaining a coherent, GB-wide framework for the duty as a whole. I therefore urge noble Lords to withdraw their amendments.