Chamber and committees

In line with the public health approach to addressing VAWG outlined in our Equally Safe strategy, using a wide range of data and evidence is central to informing policy and practice, monitoring progress, and identifying areas for future improvement.

These include official statistics, such as the domestic abuse statistics recorded by the police in Scotland and the findings on partner abuse from the Scottish Crime and Justice survey; academic research, such as that commissioned to shape our approach to challenging men’s demand for prostitution; literature produced by human rights bodies; and the views of experts by experience and profession. We also gather data by leading and participating in various groups and forums where evidence is shared.

We are also currently working with partners and academics to develop a measurement framework that can be used to monitor progress against the activities and outcomes outlined in the strategy.

Furthermore, the Equally Safe Delivery Plan includes commitments to develop a primary prevention framework, test an evidence-based implementation approach, and establish an Implementation Forum to build awareness and capacity of how to implement a public health approach to the prevention of VAWG at a local level. This work is ongoing in partnership with Public Health Scotland and the Improvement Service.

An evidence based approach was used to develop the tackling misogyny campaign, which launched in February 2026, aimed at boys aged 11-18 to make them aware of the impact of sexist content online and to parents to educate them on the scale of online misogyny and encourage conversations with their children around the harms of online misogynistic content, resulting in an effective campaign.

I refer the member to the answer to question S7W-01252 on 23 June 2026. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

Both our Equally Safe Strategy to tackle Violence against Women and Girls, and our Strategic Approach to challenge demand for prostitution recognise the need for a preventative approach, and also recognise that boys and men can also be victims of violence and exploitation. We have a range of actions in place to tackle the behaviours that underly these issues, including work with the education sector.

Schools deliver learning that enables young people to be media literate – which can include highlighting the harms associated with pornography; and relationships, sexual health and parenthood education to equip children and young people with the knowledge, skills and values to conduct positive relationships.

Through the Delivering Equally Safe fund we provide funding to Rape Crisis Scotland to deliver Equally Safe at School and the national sexual violence prevention programme which aim to tackle sexual harassment and violence in our schools. In addition, we fund the Mentors in Violence Prevention Scotland Programme, a schools-based, peer education programme working to tackle gender stereotyping and attitudes that condone violence against women and girls.

In February 2026 we launched a public information campaign to help combat the harms of sexist and misogynistic content online. Our campaign was designed to make boys and young men aware of the impact of sexist content on social media and how interacting with that can harm the women and girls they know in the real world – including their sisters, friends and classmates. By choosing not to like, share or comment on sexist content online, boys and men can help stop it spreading.

We have committed to developing a public health campaign to make young people and their parents aware of how to use social media, screen time, and online time in a safe and healthy manner.

We also launched a new Crimestopper’s awareness campaign on Commercial Sexual Exploitation in February 2026, further underlying that there is no place for the sexual exploitation of any individual in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has committed to bring forward legislation to criminalising misogynistic harassment and abuse in Scotland and we will set out the timetable for the upcoming legislative programme in due course.

Further, the Scottish Government has established a new Prevention Unit, to help embed a culture of prevention and early intervention across public services in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has not undertaken, and currently has no plans to undertake, a feasibility study into the provision of west-facing slip roads at Junction 3 of the M9.

The Scottish Government expects local authorities, as the duty holders, to ensure that school toilet facilities comply with the School Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967, as currently in force, and with their duties under the Equality Act 2010. Recognising that these regulations are dated, the Scottish Government undertook a public consultation, with the analysis report due to be published before the end of summer 2026 and updated regulations planned for early 2027.

The Supporting Transgender Pupils in Schools guidance, published in September 2025, was updated in light of the Supreme Court judgment and provides guidance on the provision of toilets in schools. Furthermore, the guidance was subject to an Equality Impact Assessment and a Children’s Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment during its preparation for publication. These are available at: Supporting transgender pupils in schools - revised guidance: equality impact assessment - gov.scot and Supporting transgender pupils in schools - revised guidance: child rights and wellbeing impact assessment - gov.scot.

The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body recently discussed and agreed to continue to collate and publish data about the diversity of MSPs. We recognise the importance of biographical data about MSPs on the website so that the public can understand and decide who they wish to contact on an issue. This data is also important for understanding and monitoring the diversity and representative make up of Parliament in the longer term.

The Gender Sensitive Audit (GSA) report in session 6 had cross party support. Its recommendations included enhancing the collation, monitoring, and reporting of diversity data at Holyrood.

It is SPCB’s intention that a web filter enabling the public to filter members by sex and trans status will be provided on the website, reflecting the diversity of parliament from session 7. This takes account of various considerations, including equalities, data protection and privacy requirements. This work is being carried out respectfully by officials recognising the sensitivities involved.

Turning to the explanation for the temporary removal of the filter following the election, some diversity information was mistakenly made available online before it had been confirmed directly by individual MSPs. Once identified, it was removed from the Parliament’s website.

That information was not sourced from, or verified by, current MSPs and was not collected in line with the terms of recommendations set out in our GSA report of March 2023. As noted, this is being remedied as a matter of urgency, and we are sorry for the confusion and upset this has caused for many people.

Accordingly, on Monday 1 June 2026, all MSPs were invited to complete a short survey on sex and trans status. This process ensures that relevant diversity information is confirmed directly with individual MSPs before use. This is in line with the recommendations of the GSA report.

The short survey should only take MSPs a few minutes to complete and seeks their consent to publication of their personal data on the Parliament’s website. It will be used in relation to the search filter regarding individual MSP website profiles and for use for internal and external reporting on aggregate data and other relevant purposes such as SPICe enquiries.

It is the SPCB’s aim to have the survey responses returned, the technical work completed and the filter reintroduced as soon as possible.