Meeting of the Parliament 12 March 2025
I ask the member please not to interject from a sedentary position. I do not have time to take interventions.
The surroundings where those assaults took place included a children’s hospital, two maternity hospitals and a palliative care hospital. Shockingly, Police Scotland could give details for only 29 per cent of the cases, meaning that the real number of sexual assaults must be far higher.
Let me make a direct plea to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice. Will she commit to urgently working with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, NHS Scotland and Police Scotland to ensure that there is more accurate recording and reporting of sexual crimes in the NHS? Can she ensure that the SNP lives up to its long-standing pledge to end not only corridor care but mixed-sex wards? Finally, will the cabinet secretary bring clarity in the Government’s actions by ensuring that single-sex spaces based on biological sex are protected for women and girls, as is set out in the Equality Act 2010?
I move amendment S6M-16755.1, to leave out from “, such as toilets” to end and insert:
“; acknowledges concerns about dignity and privacy; notes recent research on safety in hospitals relating to rape and sexual assault; calls for more accurate recording and reporting in the NHS, including to the police, leading to better protections; further calls for an end to mixed sex wards; supports ensuring that schools are designed as accessible and welcoming environments for all, including accessible and single-sex toilets, and calls for the Scottish Government to outline how single-sex provision will be delivered in public buildings, such as schools and hospitals, and in line with legal obligations.”
15:18Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.