Chamber and committees

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I could not vote. I would have voted yes.

Can the minister outline how he believes that it will be possible to address on-going exclusions from school of care-experienced children, given the harm that it does to their lives? Does he believe that a legislative solution through the Government’s Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill, which seeks to fulfil the Promise, will be possible, or does he believe that other strategies will be effective?

To ask the Scottish Government what it plans to do to ensure that children in care are not excluded from school, as set out in the Promise. (S6O-04860)

As the minister said, early intervention is key. Will she outline what further work is being considered to identify potential young offenders and develop early intervention programmes? In particular, will she respond to concerns about the funding of the no knives, better lives campaign, about which I have written to her, as there are concerns that there have been restrictions on funding in recent years?

Two United Nations reports have highlighted the persecution of the Gypsy Traveller community in Scotland and the need for an apology and further action. The First Minister says that the Scottish Government will listen. The community is asking for restitution and reparations. Does the First Minister agree that, where there are human rights abuses, compensation is appropriate?

When there is a custodial sentence, the justice system ensures that the offender complies with that sentence. However, when there is a non-custodial sentence or, indeed, an electronic monitoring order, a high percentage of those are not enforced. What is the cabinet secretary doing to ensure greater compliance with community disposals?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app would not connect. I would have voted yes.

I would not want to comment on a specific case, and I do not know the specific case that Tess White refers to. More generally, we must ensure that the disposals that the courts give have the confidence of women survivors, and we know that that is often not the case. That does not necessarily mean that a prison sentence is needed in every case, but it means that we need adequate disposals that have the confidence of women who rely on the justice system.

Scottish Labour welcomes much of the work that the Scottish Government is doing. In particular, we welcome the next phase of the women’s health plan and the on-going work that has been undertaken to improve women’s outcomes across all areas of health. The cabinet secretary focused on that to a great extent in her opening speech. However, we are concerned that progress has been slow and that significant inequalities in women’s health remain. I very much hope that we will discuss those issues further in the debate.

I am pleased to open the debate on behalf of Scottish Labour. We, of course, welcome any and all action to improve the position of women and girls in society.

Although we have seen advances towards gender equality in many areas in recent years, some of the threats that women and girls have grown to cope with have become more insidious. Today’s debate, reflecting on the first annual report from the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls, is an opportunity to take stock of the constraints and challenges that women and girls continue to face.

We know that sexism, misogyny and, indeed, violence and threats against girls and female staff in our schools are not being adequately tackled. We believe that there is a particular need for more focus in that area. We support a cross-campus strategy to address sexism and misogyny in our schools. Our young people are our future, and tackling sexist attitudes and behaviour in our schools is key to creating a more equal Scotland. The cabinet secretary confirmed the importance of the younger generation in her response to Alex Cole-Hamilton earlier in the debate, when she spoke about the importance of the norms in our society.

On accountability, the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls calls for change in society’s attitudes towards sexual violence and domestic abuse, including evaluation of the cultural landscape around gender power dynamics.

Where are we? In 2023-24, Police Scotland recorded more than 63,000 incidents of domestic abuse, which was an increase of 3 per cent on the previous year, reversing the downward trend that had been observed since the start of the decade. The overwhelming majority of incidents involved a female victim and a male suspected perpetrator. The number of recorded sexual crimes has also risen significantly in the past decade.

Transport Scotland has reported that nearly all women very often or always feel unsafe on public transport, where they feel at risk of harassment, antisocial behaviour and unwanted comments. I have spoken with many women transport workers who have been assaulted or threatened. Indeed, members of the women’s committee of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers in Scotland were in the Parliament last week and spoke about some of their personal experiences.

We have heard multiple times in the chamber about alarming incidents of abuse and violence against female teachers in our schools and against pupils, as well as concerns about many boys’ idolisation of sexist social media personalities.

Scottish Women’s Aid and other groups have highlighted that any law that is not designed with misogyny in mind and does not have ensuring women’s safety at its core is limited in how it can be used to respond to the realities of life for women. I am therefore very disappointed that the Government decided to drop its proposed misogyny bill in its latest programme for government, because that would have been an opportunity for legislators to grasp the seriousness and complexity of the issue. However, let us be clear: misogyny should have been included in the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill from the outset.

Our justice system is not adequately equipped to protect women from the behaviour of men. In 2021, more than 7,000 domestic violence cases were stuck in court backlogs, with almost 70 per cent of the cases awaiting trial being sexual offence cases. The conviction rate for rape remains far lower than the rate for other crimes, with survivors often speaking of their experience of the justice system as retraumatising. Even our police force has admitted to having institutional and persistent problems with sexist bullying. We know that there is underreporting of sexual crimes and that victims simply do not have confidence in the justice system.

I highlight the advisory council’s calls for trauma-informed forensic medical examination, independent sexual advocacy and privacy for complainers to be embedded across the justice system. I very much hope that changes that might be introduced through the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill will enable some of that to happen.

We need to look more closely at how women can be affected by multiple disadvantages due to factors such as race, sexuality and disability. I was pleased by what the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice said in relation to that. Ultimately, if we are to move towards gender equality, that means giving women more—

I am just about to conclude, so I am not sure whether it would be appropriate, but I am happy to take an intervention.