Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2025
It is a pleasure to follow Graham Simpson in this very important debate.
The voices of Scotland’s children need to be heard. The report “In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation”, commissioned by Shelter Scotland—for which I thank Shelter—puts those words not just in front of the Parliament but in front of the people of Scotland. It reports that more than 10,000 children are living—or, rather, enduring life—in temporary accommodation. As we have just heard, they are forced to live for upwards of a year in such conditions, with mould-invested rooms, beds soaked with urine and space shared with vermin being just some of the harrowing conditions that have been reported.
That is not just an issue of poor housing; it is a fundamental breach of human rights. Such conditions actively harm children’s physical and mental health, their development, their education and their life chances. It is not only a housing crisis, but a moral failure. We are a country that prides itself on our values of fairness and human rights, yet children here are growing up isolated from their peers, placed far from their schools and subjected to environments filled with fear and anxiety. Those are not just bad conditions; they violate the rights outlined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which this Parliament enshrined into law.
Article 27.1 states that parties—that is, Governments—recognise
“the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child’s physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development.”
The article makes it clear that, unequivocally, it is the responsibility of the Scottish Government, under the UNCRC (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024, to ensure that those rights to adequate standards of living are upheld.
I welcome the fact that, as Willie Rennie pointed out, in its amendment to the motion, the Scottish Government accepts its responsibility and, indeed, the breach of the UNCRC rights.
Children have a right to live in safe, stable and secure environments. They have a right to attend school without fear of being displaced or living in unhealthy conditions. They should not have to suffer the trauma of inadequate housing that impacts on their health, education and wellbeing. The Scottish Government has a responsibility to uphold those rights. Its failure to do so is not just a policy failure but a failure to meet the moral and legal obligations to protect children here.
The consequences of the breach of children’s rights are profound. Children suffer from sleep deprivation, poor nutrition, respiratory illness and mental health challenges. They fall behind in their education, struggle to maintain friendships and live in fear for their future. They are the effects of not only poor housing; they are the direct result of the failure to prioritise children’s rights in policy and in practice.
On top of that, the oversight board for the Promise reminds us in its recent report that children of families in temporary accommodation are more likely to be taken into care. When we fail on housing, we fail on so much. The right to a home is fundamental to the Promise being kept.
Scotland’s children deserve more than just words. They deserve a Government that takes action to address the crisis and ensures that every child has access to a safe, stable and supportive home environment. I welcome the fact that the minister will close the debate. I wonder whether he recalls that, in 2012, when he was leader of East Lothian Council, he said:
“We are proud of what we have achieved.”
He continued:
“But we recognise that we’re only as good as our last achievement.”
I ask the minister, what was the last achievement relating to children in temporary accommodation that he is proud of?
16:42