Nine public authorities are facing legal action for failing to reveal what steps they have taken to end age, sex and disability discrimination.

Nearly one-fifth of public authorities have also fallen short of their legal requirement to publish their workforce-equality actions in full by the end of April, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

The Scottish Government introduced the Equality Act to crack down on the practice of women being paid less and to ensure older and disabled people are not excluded.

Four-fifths of the 259 eligible public authorities complied in time, but 17% published late, published in draft form, or did not publish the full information required.

Nine public authorities, which have not been named, failed to publish anything. The commission said its legal team would be taking this further.

EHRC Scotland director Alastair Pringle said: "While the number of public bodies that have published the required information is very encouraging, this is just the first stage of analysis. We will be carrying out further qualitative analysis of this information and the statistical evidence it contains.

"For instance, a local authority may have published on time, and may have a reasonable quality of reporting, but its data may show, for example, unacceptable differences in pay between men and women doing the same types of work.

"Public bodies must now use the information they have published to improve their performance. If Scotland is to successfully emerge from the current recession we need to harness the talents of all of our citizens.

"Being excluded from the workforce because you are older or disabled, or being paid less simply because you are a woman, doesn't just harm individuals, it harms our society and economy.

"The public sector has a major role to play in dismantling discrimination and we are pleased they have made such an encouraging start."

Details of authorities' EHRC compliance at stage one have been released today in a report entitled Measuring Up.