Hansard

I am delighted to close the debate on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives and I place on record my thanks to the Equalities and Human Rights Committee for its work on the bill. It has taken some time but we are finally here, albeit with a worryingly short time to see the bill pass through Parliament.

The UNCRC was a milestone treaty that recognised the importance of childhood and the unique needs of children across the globe at a time when children’s rights had been ignored for many years. It is heartening to hear the passion for the bill that has been exuded by many members, particularly Alex Cole-Hamilton and Mary Fee.

Alison Harris rightly said that vulnerable people should know that we are on their side. The Scottish Conservatives want to see children and young people included in all aspects of life. We will support the general principles of the bill at stage 1. However, during its later stages, we will seek to lodge amendments to ensure that the bill is strengthened to reflect the concerns of a range of stakeholders, including public authorities, the Children’s Parliament, the Scottish Youth Parliament, the Law Society of Scotland and organisations that are involved with children’s rights.

As with all legislation, we must first analyse what current legislation fails to achieve. The bill is not a silver bullet. There is already a host of legislation covering numerous aspects of the UNCRC, from the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 to the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011. Right now, we could go further to protect and uphold children’s rights by using current legislation. The bill must require any future legislation to be assessed for its compatibility with UNCRC requirements.

Scotland’s children have been let down on a range of issues. John Swinney is right to want a fair and equal society for children—we all do. He talks about the effects of the pandemic but we know that there were deficiencies that left children in Scotland behind before the pandemic. Without re-running the wide-ranging and strong arguments that the committee heard in evidence, I hope that the bill will improve outcomes for all children in Scotland, especially in education.

I echo what Iain Gray said in his closing speech for Labour. Whether we are talking about falling standards in our schools, the SQA exam results fiasco or the disproportionate effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on children and young people, children across the country have a right to a good education and to development. Since day 1 of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, children’s right to education has been hindered. Lindsay Paterson, professor of education policy at the University of Edinburgh, has collated research that estimated the educational gap caused by the schools shutdown.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education announced an additional £100 million to be invested over the coming years to tackle the impact of lockdown on schools and pupils, but we still hear of pupils in deprived areas being unable to keep up with online teaching due to a lack of technology. Children across the country are having their teaching hours cut due to remote learning, while some in rural areas—including many of my constituents—struggle to gain access to the full range of online tools because of poor broadband, as mentioned by Elaine Smith.

Some newly formed groups might ask whether children’s rights have been respected in the balance between health risks and educational development. Jamie Greene raised the question whether children have the right to social interaction.

In her submission to the consultation on the incorporation of the UNCRC, Dr Tracy Kirk of Glasgow Caledonian University highlighted the damage caused by the SQA exams fiasco last August. She believed that children’s right to be listened to had been ignored. Regarding that process, all the groups that took part in the committee’s engagement work mentioned the lack of redress as an example of a time when young people’s voices had been ignored. One young person said that the 2020 SQA process had been “a kick in the teeth”; they went on to say how that had impacted on their mental health. As Mary Fee said, the bill will give children more power.

I am concerned about the impact that the bill could have on children who receive their education on a different side of the border from where they live—for example, they come from England but attend school in Berwickshire. There are questions about how the bill would work with the UK Human Rights Act 1998, especially in relation to children from England who attend Scottish schools. That should be clarified, and I intend to pursue the issue.

My colleague Alexander Stewart has already made the point that section 11(3) requires strengthening. Fulton MacGregor also raised the need for the Scottish Government to strengthen that section by amending the wording from “may” to “must”, so that a children’s rights scheme must be set out in the bill. I believe that the Scottish Government is committed to doing that.

Many of my colleagues who spoke in the debate raised the concerns of stakeholders such as the Law Society of Scotland, noting the number of duties that the bill places on public authorities and that that number is likely to grow. We do not yet know how much it will cost to provide UNCRC training to staff in public authorities and the private contractors that public authorities use. That could have significant financial implications.

The bill as introduced will have to be amended at stage 2. In the short time frame that we have, we will work with parliamentary colleagues to make good law and not bad law to incorporate the UNCRC into Scots law, as far as that is possible within the Parliament’s powers. We will support the bill’s general principles at decision time.