Chamber and committees

I have a final question on this area. During the committee’s evidence session on the proposed but delayed learning disabilities, autism and neurodivergence bill, we heard the alarming figures that 90 per cent of women with learning disabilities have been subjected to sexual abuse and that just under 70 per cent of them experienced sexual abuse before they turned 18. Did the SHRC’s research for this report encounter safeguarding concerns in institutional settings?

You have, Cathy. The buck stops with the Scottish Government and Scottish ministers.

My final question is, what communication have you had with Audit Scotland on that? Are you aware of whether it intends to undertake work on this area following your report? As you say, questions need to be asked.

The Scottish Government has not changed direction and it seems to be focusing on centralisation. Do you think that you have been heard by the Scottish Government?

Do you believe that the onus is on you to speak a bit more loudly, rather than the onus being on the Scottish Government to say, “We have heard you, and we are now going to take action”?

I have a quick follow-up question. If part of the issue is that there are not enough—or there is a high turnover of—social workers, so they are spread too thinly, who will do the action plans?

My next question is about resources. The SHRC’s findings on the community living change fund, which you referred to earlier, are startling. Significant sums have been left unspent and there has been a lack of transparency and accountability relating to the fund overall. Furthermore, money has been used to renovate institutional settings, which the SHRC says is

“in direct contravention of the requirements of the right to independent living.”

That is alarming. It is absolutely shocking.

How should funding be allocated and monitored to ensure that that will not happen again? Have you raised your concerns directly with the Scottish Government? If so, what was its response?

In relation to the 55 people who have been incarcerated for longer than 18 years and the 10 people who have been incarcerated for more than 25 years, we had a powerful witness statement, a few months ago, from an organisation called People First (Scotland). Gregor Hardie gave us each a chart that basically said “Countdown to the Scottish Government’s coming home deadline”. He said that

“the deadline has been and gone without the commitment being met.”—[Official Report, Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, 26 November 2024; c 11.]

I have had that up on my wall as a reminder. One could say to People First (Scotland) and those families that there is a dereliction of duty by the Scottish ministers and that the issue lies at the door of the Scottish ministers.

I have a follow-up question. I was struck by the case of Linda, who appeared in the BBC documentary “Jailed: Women in Prison”. Linda has been diagnosed with Gómez–López-Hernández syndrome, which is a developmental disability, and she has been placed in custody at Wintergreen Hall, which is a specialised unit in HMP Stirling. Linda said:

“I don’t want to be out, it’s just safer in here.”

How can we ensure that women such as Linda have the support that they need when they leave an institutional setting?

I am grateful to the committee for the opportunity to speak to PE2136. I pay tribute to the petitioner Fiona Drouet, who is here in the committee room. Fiona lost her daughter Emily in the most tragic circumstances after her boyfriend abused her while they were students at the University of Aberdeen. I first became aware of the devastating physical and psychological impact of choking a sexual partner during a parliamentary event that I held with the women’s support service, Beira’s Place, towards the end of last year.

The issue had not come to my attention before then, but once you know about such a thing, you have to do something about it. As you said, convener, there are devastating effects. Within six to eight seconds, a woman loses consciousness. After 15 seconds, her bladder will be incontinent. After 30 seconds, her bowels will open. She will be brain dead within four minutes.

As Fiona has said herself, no one—no woman or girl—could ever consent to this; indeed, there comes a point where a woman or girl is physically unable to do anything about it. How can you consent to something if you lose consciousness? It is not “breath play”—that is a euphemism that men use. They say, “Oh, it’s just breath play during sexual intimacy.” It is not; it is truly frightening, and it can be a predictor of dangerous and potentially fatal behaviour.

The petition, as you have rightly said, convener, calls for a stand-alone criminal offence for non-fatal strangulation. My view is that the common-law offence of assault does not adequately capture the complexity of what is a startling and ever-growing problem. In recognition of the fact that, as the committee has just heard, non-fatal strangulation can occur without obvious physical injury, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland have already introduced stand-alone offences with robust penalties.

I note, as does Fiona Drouet, the concerns expressed by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs about unintended consequences and what she has said to the committee about having a separate law, especially its interaction with existing domestic abuse legislation. However, that response does not cover two key points. This is a form of abuse and control; it can be part of domestic abuse, but it is also part of violence against women. It is also a non-consensual act. So, although I acknowledge the need to stress test any changes to the current law in Scotland, I am massively concerned that the Scottish Government is kicking the can down the road. This feels like yet another issue impacting women that is being pushed to the bottom of the legislative agenda.

Finally, convener and committee, as a Parliament, we have a year to go—please do not allow this to be lost. We could be talking about your daughters or your nieces. Something needs to be done. The Scottish Government now has an opportunity to signal a zero-tolerance approach to non-fatal strangulation, and I urge it to act with the urgency that the issue deserves.

Will the minister take an intervention?

I welcome the opportunity to lead this members’ business debate on sexual violence in Scotland’s hospitals. I thank Michelle Thomson for supporting the motion and allowing it to achieve cross-party support. That means that we can shine a much-needed light on a serious safeguarding issue in Scotland’s national health service.

I pay tribute to the Women’s Rights Network Scotland, which is represented in the public gallery, especially Mary Howden and Carolyn Brown, who authored the sobering report—which I have with me here—“How safe are our Scottish hospitals?”

Once again, it is a grass-roots women’s organisation that has brought concerns about safety and safeguarding in Scotland’s public sector to the fore. The Sunday Post has built on that work in recent weeks by exposing the issue and holding the Scottish National Party Government to account. The WRN submitted close to 200 freedom of information requests to Police Scotland and surveyed 198 hospital settings over a five-year period. Data was made available for only 57 of those hospitals, which is just 29 per cent of Scotland’s total. It showed that, between 2019 and 2024, 276 sexual assaults and 12 rapes were reported and 163 sexual assaults and rapes occurred on hospital wards. Twenty-two sexual assaults and one rape took place in NHS Grampian, in my region, and 17 sexual assaults and three rapes took place in NHS Tayside. Out of a total of 288 incidents, only 156 individuals were charged.

Those are spine-chilling figures. By no means is that a complete picture. We do not have data for almost two thirds of Scotland’s NHS and private hospitals. Underreporting and a lack of data management mean that we simply do not know the full scale of the problem. We can all agree that even one sexual assault in our NHS is too many.

Whether it is to receive medical care ourselves or to visit a poorly loved one, we are often at our most vulnerable when we enter a hospital. We are placing our physical and psychological safety in the hands of health boards and NHS staff. We are entrusting our children and our family to their care. We must be able to do so without fear. Staff, too, are vulnerable. Members will recall the shocking revelations in autumn 2023 about female surgeons being sexually assaulted and harassed by male colleagues in the operating theatre. The safety of patients, visitors and staff must be the SNP Government’s top priority when it comes to the NHS.

I was extremely concerned to learn that some women are afraid to seek treatment because of the potential risk to their safety. I hope that the minister will address that in closing the debate. Earlier this year, I raised with the First Minister concerns about the Carseview psychiatric unit in NHS Tayside, which has mixed-sex wards. The WRN’s research suggests that seven sexual assaults and two rapes took place in this so-called secure psychiatric setting.

One of my constituents received treatment in Carseview for postpartum psychosis following the birth of her second baby. I understand that, at that most vulnerable point in her life, she was repeatedly subjected to another patient exposing himself. She was terrified and traumatised, she was separated from her support network and she was scared for her safety on a mixed-sex ward. How can that be? Where was the duty of care? For women giving birth or accessing support for serious mental ill health or learning disabilities, safeguarding has to be of paramount importance.

The Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee recently heard evidence that 90 per cent of women with learning difficulties and disabilities have been subjected to sexual abuse, with 68 per cent of them experiencing sexual abuse before turning 18. Women have been raped or sexually assaulted at Scottish maternity hospitals on at least five different occasions, and one of those rapes was reported at Aberdeen maternity hospital. Sexual assaults have also been reported in other psychiatric units and palliative settings.

That cannot go on. We must see urgent action from the SNP Government, health boards, NHS partners and Police Scotland to allay the concerns of women and girls.

What is the way ahead? I often say that we cannot manage what we cannot measure. I understand that Healthcare Improvement Scotland is working to standardise the reporting of incidents, and that is to be welcomed, but we need details from the Scottish Government on how that will operate in practice. To address the risks and weaknesses and to put preventative policies in place, we need to see the data.

There is a wider issue about mixed-sex wards. Protecting single-sex spaces in our public sector should be at the top of the policy agenda, and I have had rigorous exchanges with SNP ministers on that issue. Since 2005, the Scottish Government has expected health boards to ensure that their facilities comply with the guidelines and recommendations on the elimination of mixed-sex accommodation that were published 25 years ago. However, that is just not happening on the ground, and I think that that is evident from the data.

Our hospitals must be safe for people—especially women and children—who access those settings. The SNP Government must act swiftly to address sexual violence in Scotland’s hospitals. [Applause.]