Chamber and committees

I open this debate on the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill at a time of growing global instability. That instability can result in people having to flee their homes to seek safety in another country. Scotland has a proud history of welcoming those who are fleeing war and persecution, and the debate needs to be seen in that wider context.

Border security is central to the UK Government’s plan for change. The Border Security Command aims to co-ordinate efforts to dismantle criminal gangs, which prey on the desperation of those who are seeking a safe haven. At the time of the previous general election, more than 122 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced as they fled persecution and conflict, violence and human rights violations.

Many people risk dangerous Channel crossings out of desperation and rely on smugglers and criminal networks. These are not journeys of choice; they are journeys of desperation by men, women and children who are seeking safer shores.

In 2024, 73 people died attempting the crossing—more than in the previous six years combined. The boats are now more crowded, with an average of 53 people per vessel, which is up from 13 per vessel in 2020. The Scottish Government does not condone illegal activity and supports efforts to disrupt criminal networks. Measures such as enhanced data sharing and new offences can help, but they must be implemented with care. Strong oversight, safeguards and respect for privacy and due process are essential.

Strengthening border security is legitimate, but it must not criminalise those who are fleeing war and persecution. While we support sanctions for serious crimes, such as human trafficking, breaching immigration rules alone should not result in criminalisation. Many people who arrive in small boats are vulnerable individuals who are seeking safety. Detention and prosecution should always be a last resort.

The bill must be matched by the expansion of safe and legal routes, such as refugee resettlement, family reunion and humanitarian pathways. Amnesty has said that safe routes save lives, and the Scottish Refugee Council has called the bill a “missed opportunity”. Enforcement alone will not resolve the crisis. We must address the root cause and protect the most vulnerable. As a founding signatory to the refugee convention, the UK has a moral and legal duty to uphold its principles.

I welcome the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee’s report on the legislative consent memorandum and its recommendation that the Parliament should consent to the relevant provisions in the bill. The committee highlighted stakeholder concerns about age declaration forms and called for the reassurance that we are working with the UK Government to mitigate the risks for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. We have engaged with the UK Government and we understand that those forms are used in Kent, not Scotland. We will continue to monitor the issue.

The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting those who come to Scotland in search of safety and to ensuring that the implementation of the bill reflects our values and respect for human rights. As head of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Lord Advocate has published instructions for prosecutors when considering the prosecution of a person who is, or appears to be, the victim of human trafficking and exploitation.

The Scottish Government introduced what became the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015, which provides support when there are reasonable grounds to believe that an adult is a victim of human trafficking. That support can include accommodation, medical care, legal services and psychological support.

Alongside support services that local authorities provide to child victims, the Scottish Government funds the guardianship Scotland service to support unaccompanied children in Scotland who have been trafficked or who are vulnerable to being exploited.

We facilitate refugee integration through the new Scots refugee integration strategy, which is delivered in partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the Scottish Refugee Council. We also provide tailored support through Scotland’s migration service, which helps people to navigate our complex immigration system, understand their rights, access services and build stable lives.

In moving the motion, I recommend the Parliament’s consent to the relevant provisions in the bill as amended. While recognising the UK Government’s efforts to combat organised immigration crime, the Scottish Government reaffirms its commitment to those who are fleeing persecution and urges the UK Government to expand the availability of safe and legal routes to sanctuary.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees that the relevant provisions in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, introduced in the House of Commons on 30 January 2025, relating to the provision and sharing of trailer registration information (amended clauses 30 to 33), the provision of biometric information at ports in Scotland (clause 36), the repeal of certain provisions of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 (clause 38), the detention and exercise of functions pending deportation (clause 41), powers to take biometric information at detention centres (clause 44), offences relating to articles for use in serious crime (clauses 49 and 50), applicants for making of orders and interim orders (clause 54), and the validation of fees charged in relation to qualifications (clause 57), so far as these matters fall within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament and alter the executive competence of the Scottish Ministers, should be considered by the UK Parliament.

I thank colleagues for their thoughtful and considered contributions to the debate, although the speeches have been varied and possibly a little polarised, which is not unexpected. I ask the chamber to support the Scottish Government’s motion to grant legislative consent to the relevant provisions of the UK Government’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. I emphasise again that this is not a blanket endorsement of the UK Government’s immigration and asylum policy; indeed, just the other week, I stood here and expressed serious concerns about its approach to migration.

We welcome many of the intended benefits of the provisions of the bill, especially through the repeal of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 and the repeal of parts of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 that removed the duty on Scottish ministers to protect trafficking victims. That is a necessary step towards addressing the legacy of fear, uncertainty and hostility that was left in the wake of those deeply concerning measures, which were initiated by the UK Conservative Government.

The provisions on which we seek consent—particularly those concerning data sharing, enforcement, co-operation and safeguarding—demand our active engagement. Through that active engagement, we can ensure that they are implemented in a way that respects devolved responsibilities and upholds fundamental human rights. In an interconnected world, challenges such as migration, climate change and global security demand co-operation and not isolation. By working across Governments, we respond more effectively to shared crises.

We recognise the serious challenges in the current system, but the bill must come with a commitment to improving access to safe and legal routes for those who seek protection. Without such measures, we risk perpetuating the very vulnerabilities that the bill seeks to resolve.

I say on the record that I have much sympathy with Maggie Chapman’s contribution on section 29 of the Illegal Migration Act 2023. Of course, that matter is wholly reserved and today we are talking about the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill.

I close with the message that Scotland stands—and will always stand—for dignity, fairness and respect and will remain a place of refuge for those fleeing persecution and conflict.

I thank members across the chamber for their contributions and add my thanks to past and present members of the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls and to the empowering women panel, who have made today’s debate possible. As the cabinet secretary has said, the panel is a diverse group of women and girls whom I had the opportunity to meet earlier this year, and they have been brought together by the council so that their lived experience can inform its work. That is important, because some women experience multiple forms of discrimination and inequality—for example, because they are disabled or are from a minority ethnic background.

Some of the advisory council’s recommendations are aimed at ensuring that the voices of the most marginalised women and girls shape our policies across Government. The council has asked us to put lived experience at the heart of policy making and to ensure that we are collecting robust intersectional data. In the next few minutes, I would like to tell members how we are delivering on those asks, and I will try to respond to as many of the points that were raised as I possibly can.

At the end of April, the Scottish Government published new equality outcomes for the period to 2029.

Mr Ruskell makes the case for the scheme well. After the 2025-26 budget was passed in February, we were able to confirm plans in the programme for government for a £2 million national pilot to support free bus travel for people seeking asylum this financial year. In May, Transport Scotland reconvened a working group with the third sector and local authorities to help inform how that can be delivered. That included consideration of how to maximise value and benefits from the funding. Scottish ministers previously committed to exploring the extension of concessionary travel for people seeking asylum by the end of this parliamentary session. That exploratory work will continue in parallel with the design and delivery of a pilot.

The Scottish Government is a progressive Government that has equality at the heart of our policies and actions. We are disappointed that the United Kingdom has fallen in the recent ILGA-Europe rainbow index of LGBTI equality laws. The Scottish Government remains committed to delivering equality for all people in Scotland, including the LGBTQI+ community.

Although much of equality law is reserved to the UK Government, our 2025-26 programme for government committed to

“Creating safe spaces for the LGBTQI+ community—funding work that tackles discrimination and upholds the human rights of this group, including through the Equality and Human Rights Fund, and progressing actions within the Non-Binary Equality Action Plan”,

as well as taking forward our commitment to ending conversion practices. We continue to work closely with LGBTQI+ stakeholders as we progress that work.

I thank Evelyn Tweed for the opportunity to reaffirm the Scottish Government’s commitment to advancing equality for LGBTQI+ people and to promoting, protecting and realising the rights of every LGBTQI+ person in Scotland.

We are providing funding of more than £1.1 million to organisations that work to promote LGBTQI+ equality in Scotland in 2025-26. That supports a range of projects to tackle inequality and realise the rights of LGBTQI+ people across all areas of Scottish life. We are working to implement our non-binary equality action plan and take forward our commitment to ending conversion practices, including those on the basis of gender identity.

We will continue to work with a wide range of third sector organisations to ensure that the voices of those with lived experience can help to improve the outcomes for LGBTQI+ communities across Scotland.

I will make some progress and then come back to address members’ points.

Under the Equality Act 2010, we are required to set those outcomes every four years. They are intended to enable us to better fulfil the public sector equality duty, which is part of the act. We have chosen to focus on two of our three outcomes—strengthening the collection, analysis and publication of equality evidence, and embedding lived experience and participation at the heart of our work—to reflect our commitment to ensuring that the voices of women and girls, who are most affected by inequality, shape our policies and decisions. We will deliver a range of actions in the period to 2029 to achieve those outcomes, and we will create resources to support Scottish Government staff in delivering participation and lived experience approaches and look at ways of making it easier for communities to engage with us and share their experiences.

In relation to intersectional data and evidence, we are building on a well-established programme of work that includes the 2023 publication entitled “Scotland’s Equality Evidence Strategy 2023-2025”. Our strategy sets out actions to improve the equality evidence base across most policy areas. We know that good-quality data helps us better understand women’s experiences and the barriers that they might encounter, and it helps us deliver better and more informed policy and know when additional targeted measures are needed.

We can also point to where lived experience approaches are making a difference right now across Government. For example, our funding of the sexual assault co-ordination services, which the cabinet secretary mentioned, includes funding for a patient advocate to help ensure that women’s lived experience is reflected in policy development. The empowering women panel has also been working directly with Government civil servants on the design of our school-age childcare programme.

I would like to address some of the points that were raised about using the terms “sex” and “gender” as if they were interchangeable. I will make an attempt to explain my view on that. Sex is the protected characteristic and we accept the Supreme Court’s ruling—there is no ambiguity about that. Gender signifies the stereotypes and the systemic, institutional and societal barriers that are gendered, such as those on, say, pay gap reporting. Both terms co-exist and inform each other. That is the theme that comes through the NACWG report and our response as a Government.

I would also like to address the point about non-fatal strangulation. We are aware and understand why Fiona Drouet submitted her petition on the issue, and we recognise the significant physical and psychological impact that that type of criminality has on victims. The Scottish Government has committed to undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the law to see whether further action needs to be taken. We will also look at the Criminal Justice Committee’s evidence session on 21 May as part of that wider consideration.

Rona Mackay, Karen Adam and many others talked about gender budgeting. To give members reassurance, I would point out that we are changing how we think about our spending decisions—

I will just finish my sentence, which was about the spending decisions that can help women and girls through gender budgeting, including further pilot activity on gender budget tagging for the 2026-27 budget, which builds on our work with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Tess White is perhaps referring to the use of equality impact assessments, which will ensure that that work is progressed. Following evidence sessions that I have had at the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, of which she is a member, on the work that I am pursuing, I think that she will agree that we must ensure that we raise the standard across the whole of Scotland, so that we can address the point that she raises and which I thank her for making.

I will add something further on gender budgeting. On 26 February 2025, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice committed to developing a national gender strategy co-designed with the NACWG, the empowering women panel—EWP—and wider groups of women with diverse lived experience. I hope that that will give members some reassurance on gender budgeting and the fact that we take it very seriously.

Ms White talked about the gender pay gap. Although the median gender pay gap for full-time employees in Scotland increased from 1.4 per cent in 2023 to 2.2 per cent in 2024, the gap continues to be narrower than the UK equivalent, which is sitting at 7 per cent at the moment. I thought that it was worth while mentioning that.

I welcome the speeches that have been made on the issue of unpaid carers. Karen Adam illustrated the issue very well. It is recognised that around 73 per cent of unpaid carers are women, and I would highlight the fact that the Government is investing £522 million in 2025-26 to deliver three benefits to support unpaid carers.

The debate marks the publication of the Scottish Government’s first annual statement on gender policy coherence, which describes the significant range of activity that is going on across the Government to make the lives of women and girls in Scotland better. It sets a benchmark against which we can measure progress in the years to come.

The former UN secretary general Kofi Annan said:

“Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.”

In that respect, we all have a stake in the realisation of greater equality for women and girls in Scotland.

I wrote to the UK Government in November 2024, urging it to engage with us following the publication of our asylum right to work pilot proposal. In January 2025, it responded that it was unable to commit to exploring the proposal. Following further exchanges, the UK Government has agreed to meet to discuss it. I have accepted that offer, but a meeting date has not been scheduled yet. I remain very keen to discuss the pilot and would also like to discuss improvements to the current policy for granting permission to work for people seeking asylum.