Hansard

It gives me great pleasure to speak in today’s historic debate. We often use the word “historic” in this Parliament, but we rarely use it as appropriately as we do today. I hope that at decision time we will come one crucial step closer to passing a groundbreaking bill that has the potential to improve the lives and life chances of Scotland’s children and young people.

Until the festive recess, I was a member of the Equalities and Human Rights Committee, which had the privilege of taking the bill through stage 1 and gathering evidence. I was initially disappointed to leave the committee, and it is fair to say that it was a great honour to have been involved in the progress of the bill so far. I will stay involved throughout the remaining stages.

I thank all members of the committee and the clerks for their scrutiny of the bill. We had really good evidence sessions from stakeholder groups and we held a huge number of outreach events so that we could engage directly with young people, to inform our stage 1 report, as the convener said—she will probably not mention this herself, so let me say that I think that she went to every single outreach event.

If anyone needs more convincing of the historic nature of the bill, they should take a look at the letter and briefing from the Together Scotland alliance of more than 50 organisations that work day in, day out with children and young people and have fought for a long time for the incorporation of the UNCRC into Scots law.

By incorporating the UNCRC into Scots law, we will build children’s rights into the fabric of decision making in Scotland. The bill will revolutionise the way in which we listen to children and take their rights into account. It will mean that children and young people are involved in the decisions that affect their lives, and that children’s rights are always respected, protected and fulfilled by public authorities, which will be under a statutory duty to do so. The bill ultimately shifts the balance of power and allows our children to use the courts to enforce their rights when they are not upheld.

I welcome the Scottish Government’s response to the stage 1 debate. It is fair to say, as Jamie Greene did, that there were few areas of disagreement. There was greater scrutiny of the more technical points; perhaps, in the committee’s view, that scrutiny strengthened the bill. One area where I welcome the Scottish Government’s response is in relation to the children’s rights scheme, which the committee heard a lot of support for during its evidence gathering. The committee asked the Scottish Government to strengthen section 11(3) by amending “may” to “must”; I am pleased that that has been agreed to. I am also pleased that the Scottish Government will introduce an amendment to strengthen the scheme by requiring ministers to include arrangements in respect of child-friendly complaints mechanisms and ensuring effective access to justice for children and young people.

Those changes, among others, particularly in section 11, are important to ensure that those who deal with children do so in a child-friendly manner and that children who may not normally engage with the process—the so-called hard-to-reach children, for want of a better term—are given the opportunities that others are given. We heard a lot in our outreach sessions about how important it is that all children and young people, from a variety of backgrounds and communities, feel included. I pay tribute to Mary Fee, who talked about the Gypsy Traveller community as an example of that.

There are areas in which there is scope for further amendments—mostly of a technical nature—at stage 2. One such area, in which there will perhaps be a bit more debate, is the commencement provision, which other members have mentioned. Together and the 50 or so children’s organisations are calling for commencement within six months of royal assent, citing Covid-19 and Brexit as factors. At this stage, I would tend to agree—I know that the cabinet secretary is still considering it. The pandemic is placing pressure like never before on our statutory bodies, but that is heavily and significantly outweighed by the impact that it has had on children’s rights. With school necessarily disrupted on public health grounds, restrictions on when children can see relatives and friends, children’s futures in doubt and their health needs impacted, it has never been more vital that children’s rights are upheld and protected with every measure possible. The pandemic has also laid bare the inequalities that exist—a point that was well made by Social Work Scotland in its submission.

On top of that, children in Scotland are faced with Brexit—again, it is not of their own doing and, in this case, is something that the adults who care for them and had the right to vote did not even vote for. It is shameful that children’s rights have been walked all over in that regard. Given the double whammy of Covid and Brexit, Scottish children’s rights should get additional protection as quickly as possible.

Overall, this is a significant and historic bill which, assuming that it is passed, may well be one of the most important laws that is passed by this Parliament. Organisations and political parties are largely united about Scotland becoming the first country in the UK to incorporate the UNCRC into law.

I finish by paying tribute to my constituent Ryan McShane, who many members, including the Deputy First Minister, know. As a care-experienced young person and advocate of children’s rights, this will be an important day for him, and he can be very proud. I would like it placed on record here in our Parliament that I am grateful for his input on the bill to the committee and directly to me as his MSP. Ryan’s input, experience and insights, and those of all the young people who were engaged in the process, have been invaluable and much appreciated, so I thank them.

I urge Parliament to vote for the principles of the bill at stage 1.