Our methodology

The Commission has reviewed what actions the UK and Welsh Governments have taken in relation to a number of different human rights issues, and carried out our own assessment of any progress made. We have looked at actions and progress since 2016, reviewing the UK and Welsh Governments separately for those human rights issues that are devolved to the Welsh Government. Our published assessments are designed to provide a succinct overview, and are therefore not intended to provide an exhaustive account of all developments pertaining to a particular issue. They have however been quality assured, tested and scrutinised by relevant experts across the Equality and Human Rights Commission to ensure that they are fair, evidence-based and robust. Government actions The purpose of the ‘Government Action’ pages is to provide a snapshot of the key steps that have been and are being taken by the UK and Welsh Governments in relation to different human rights issues. For each issue, we considered:

• The legislative changes that the UK and Welsh Governments have introduced, committed to introducing, or supported for that issue
• The main policy or practice reforms that the UK and Welsh Governments have introduced or committed to for that issue

In deciding which to include in this snapshot, we prioritised more recent actions, and concrete steps over commitments. Actions are shown in chronological order, from newest to oldest. Progress assessments The purpose of our ‘Progress Assessment’ pages is to provide a succinct overview of how well the UK and Welsh Governments are meeting their international human rights obligations. In line with our measurement framework for equality and human rights, we reviewed progress on human rights by looking at ‘structure’, ‘process’ and ‘outcomes’. Simply put, the ‘structure’ relates to the law, the ‘process’ to government policies and their implementation, and the ‘outcome’ to people’s actual experiences. We based our assessments on evidence from a range of sources, including:

• National statistics;
• Our own published research and analysis;
• Parliamentary inquiry reports;
• Public inquiry reports, or Government-commissioned independent reviews; and
• Robust evidence published by civil society, think tanks and academics.

In carrying out our assessments, we prioritised more recent changes and those that have had the most significant impact on human rights. We considered any evidence of the cumulative impact of changes and looked at the experiences of different groups, including those with protected characteristics. We applied the following criteria when assigning a progress status to each human rights issue:

Progress status	Criteria for assessment:
Regression: There has been a sustained or severe regression in the enjoyment of human rights, or a significant reduction in human rights standards or protections in law or policy.	There has been either: A weakening of the human rights standards to which the UK is committed related to this sub-issue; Legal or policy changes that have significantly reduced human rights protections; or Evidence of a sustained or severe regression in the enjoyment of human rights for specific target population groups or protected characteristics.
No progress: There have been no legal or policy changes to improve human rights protections in relation to this issue, and very limited evidence of progress in the enjoyment of these rights.	There has been: No evidence of sustained or severe regression in the enjoyment of human rights; No progress in improving the policy and legal frameworks to strengthen human rights protections; and Very limited evidence of progress in the enjoyment of human rights for the wider population, or specific target population groups or protected characteristics.
Limited progress: There have been legal or policy changes to improve human rights protections but very limited evidence of sustained improvements in the enjoyment of human rights on this issue.	There has been: Progress in improving the policy and legal frameworks to strengthen the protection of human rights, or strong commitments to do so; and No or limited evidence of sustained progress in the enjoyment of human rights related to this issue for the wider population and/or for specific target population groups or protected characteristics.
Moderate progress: There have been legal or policy changes to improve human rights protections and evidence of some sustained progress in the enjoyment of human rights related to this issue. However, on some of these rights, or for some groups, there has not been comparative progress.	There has been: Progress in improving the policy and legal frameworks to strengthen the protection of human rights; and Evidence of sustained progress in the enjoyment of the human rights related to this issue for the wider population, but there are specific human rights which have not been progressed, or some population groups or protected characteristics which have not seen comparative progress.
Sustained progress: There have been legal or policy changes to improve human rights protections, and sustained progress in the enjoyment of human rights related to this issue for the wider population and/or specific groups.	There has been: Progress in improving the policy and legal frameworks to strengthen the protection of human rights; and Evidence of sustained progress in the enjoyment of all human rights related to this issue, for the wider population and/or specific target population groups or protected characteristics.