Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. The member should refer to each operator, CalMac Ferries Limited and NorthLink Ferries.

Scottish Ministers are occasionally given prints and artwork as gifts. I have included a breakdown of the data you are seeking below:

Ministers may have received artwork or prints up to the value of £140 as gifts. Gifts under the value of £140 are not recorded by Scottish Government.

Today the Scottish Ministers have laid a draft of a Scottish Statutory Instrument (SSI) in Parliament which adds the characteristic of sex to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 ("the 2021 Act") and published a consultation paper seeking views on the draft instrument. The consultation can be viewed at https://www.gov.scot/isbn/9781806430857.

The effect of the SSI is to add the characteristic of sex to the list of characteristics covered by the offence of stirring up hatred and the statutory aggravation concerning offences aggravated by prejudice. This will ensure that women and girls have the same protections as victims of hate crime targeted because of their religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity, age, disability or variations in sex characteristics. The provision will also provide protection to men and boys.

There is a requirement in the 2021 Act for the draft SSI to be laid in Parliament for at least 40 days, excluding any period where the Parliament is in recess for more than 2 days. The consultation will run until 10 October 2025. The responses to the consultation will help inform consideration of the SSI to be laid in Parliament after the end of the consultation.

City of Sanctuary UK is registered as an independent charity working across the UK and I can confirm that no funding has been provided from Scottish Government to City of Sanctuary in the last 5 years.

Abuse, violence or harassment of any kind, particularly violence against women and girls (VAWG), should not be tolerated in our society. We are taking forward a range of actions in schools to address VAWG and sexual harassment.

Our Equally Safe strategy for preventing and eradicating violence against women and girls emphasises the importance of challenging the underpinning attitudes which enable such violence to take place, including in education settings.

In March 2024 we published a national framework for schools to help tackle gender-based violence. It provides guidance on how schools can address the underlying causes of gender-based violence, and ensure appropriate action is taken in response to specific incidents.

To further support schools, we fund Rape Crisis Scotland to run Equally Safe at Schools, a programme which helps build a positive culture in which staff feel more confident and skilled in responding to incidents and disclosures of sexual harassment and students are empowered to seek help if needed. Alongside this, we also fund the Rape Crisis Prevention Programme to provide training for pupils on issues related to misogyny and violence. We also fund Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) Programme which is a peer education programme which works to tackle gender stereotyping and attitudes that condone violence against women and girls.

Relationships, sexual health and parenthood (RSHP) education is an integral part of the health and wellbeing area of the school curriculum in Scotland. RSHP education focuses on equipping children and young people with the knowledge, skills and values to make informed and positive choices about forming relationships. This includes understanding of issues like consent, appropriate relationships and boundaries, which can play a crucial role in helping to reduce instances of gender based violence.

We have also supported Time for Inclusive Education (TIE) to develop their new Digital Discourse Initiative, which is a free online resource for teachers and educators designed to equip children and young people with skills to navigate digital media and counter the impacts of disinformation and online hate. The resource features a detailed case analysis about the so-called ‘Manosophere’ and the promotion of radical misogyny online from Zero Tolerance, the charity working to end men’s violence against women.

The Scottish Government holds no information on which public sector organisations have been awarded City of Sanctuary awards in the last 5 years. Some of this information is available in the Cities of Sanctuary UK 2024 Impact Report which is available on their website.

I refer the member to the recent meetings of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on unimplemented legislation, including the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 (the 2020 Act), where updates on implementation of the Act were discussed – on 10 December 2024 [see Official Report columns 11 to 15] and 24 June 2025 [see Official Report columns 10 to 14].

The Scottish Government letter to the Committee on 11 March 2025 sets out the position on commencement and implementation of key provisions of the 2020 Act: Letter from the Minister for Victims and Community Safety.

Since that letter we have made a further set of commencement regulations: The Children (Scotland) Act 2020 (Commencement No. 3 and Saving Provision) Regulations 2025 relating to section 1(2), on the views of the child being considered when parents are making major decisions; and section 30(1), (3), (4), (5), (6) and (7), on delay in children’s hearings and adoption and permanence proceedings.

A number of other provisions are already in force or have already been commenced for certain purposes:

?The Children (Scotland) Act 2020 (Commencement No. 1 and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2020

?The Children (Scotland) Act 2020 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2021

We plan to make a further set of commencement regulations in October 2025 of provisions set out in the letter to Committee. This commitment was made at the meeting of the Committee on unimplemented legislation on 24 June 2025.

Sections 4, 5, 7 and 8 of the 2020 Act are considerably amended by provisions in Part 3 of the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform Bill, therefore commencement of those sections will follow enactment of the Bill. In addition, since we intend to regulate child contact services using powers in the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, we won’t commence further provisions in section 10 of the 2020 Act at this time.

I refer the member to a meeting of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on 24 June 2025 on unimplemented legislation, including the Children (Scotland) Act 2020, where the Scottish Government provided an update on implementation of the register of child welfare reporters and child advocacy services in contact and residence cases: Official Report (columns 10 to 14).

We recognise the importance of section 21 of the 2020 Act and the need to ensure child advocacy is available to children in contact and residence cases. However, we are not in a position to implement this provision until other areas of implementation work (e.g. child contact services regulation and child welfare reporters) are further advanced. Therefore, we have not yet commenced section 21, but we will gather views of key bodies on what they would like to see in this area.

There have been four meetings of the working group on child welfare reporters to date with a focus on looking at what changes can be made to the system and how we will establish the register. We plan to publish minutes from those meetings in due course.

Yes. Section 30(1), (3), (4), (5), (6) and (7) of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 came into force on 22 June 2025 as set out in:

The Children (Scotland) Act 2020 (Commencement No. 3 and Saving Provision) Regulations 2025.

Section 30(1), (3), (4), (5), (6) and (7) of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020, on delay in children’s hearings and adoption and permanence proceedings, came into force on 22 June 2025:

The Children (Scotland) Act 2020 (Commencement No. 3 and Saving Provision) Regulations 2025.

Section 30(2), relating to delay in cases under section 11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 (e.g. contact and residence) is not yet in force. It will be included in the next set of commencement regulations planned for October 2025. Since it is linked to the commencement of other provisions where there will be operational implications, there will be a 12 month lead-in period before the provisions in the next set of commencement regulations will come into force.

I refer the member to a meeting of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on unimplemented legislation (including the 2020 Act) on 24 June 2025 regarding this commitment: Official Report (see columns 10 to 14).