Meeting of the Parliament 16 December 2025 [Draft]
I am profoundly sad that we have got to this point. The Scottish Government can and should have handled this issue far better, but I doubt that that would have dissuaded those who have used it for political advantage. In recent weeks, we have seen how detached the debate has become from the issue that is at the heart of this: protecting children from sexual abuse and securing justice for victims and survivors.
I do not pretend to understand the trauma that survivors have gone through, and I doubt that anyone who has not gone through it can truly understand that pain.
However, in this job, I have spent a lot of time with survivors, particularly during the establishment of Redress Scotland. I appreciate how angry many of them are, and that anger is justified. I respect the fact that survivors are not a homogeneous group who speak with one voice—I certainly do not claim to speak for them now—but the pain of having been let down and failed by those who should have protected them, as children, is near universal.
We could have used this afternoon to put questions to the Scottish Government about what additional action it is now taking to deliver justice for those who were failed and to prevent the same thing from happening to more children in the future. It is hard to think of anything more important for a Government to do.
We could have talked about the need to improve the Children (Care, Care Experience and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill, which is due to be passed before the election. We know that a disproportionate number of victims of this scandal are care-experienced children and young people. We have a bill in front of us that has unanimous support, but people’s frustration with it is almost equally unanimous. The bill is intended to fulfil the Promise, but it does not do so. We are already talking about legislation being required in the next parliamentary session to meet that commitment. The Promise Scotland has said that the bill does not fulfil the vision of the independent care review.
Almost four years ago, the Scottish Government committed to reviewing the legislation underpinning the care system, with the aim of making it more understandable, less fragmented and more effective, but that has still not happened, despite the total fragmentation of support being one of the contributing factors in grooming gangs being able to target and abuse children without anyone in a position of authority stopping them.
We could have challenged the justice secretary on the huge problems in the legal aid system and the effect that those are having on survivors seeking justice. Reform of legal aid was promised in this parliamentary session, but it has not yet been delivered. We hear that there might be something before the election, but there are only 10 sitting weeks left. Through the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act 2025, the Parliament agreed that independent legal advice should be provided to victims of sexual offences, but that is irrelevant if there are simply not enough solicitors taking on such cases. We know that, in some parts of the country, none are doing so. That is not an easy problem to solve, but, unresolved, it shuts down access to justice for far too many people, including survivors of grooming gangs and other forms of child sexual abuse.
We could have talked about the delayed update to guidance for schools on relationships, sexual health and parenthood education. One of the simplest things that we can do to protect children from sexual abuse is to provide age-appropriate and stage-appropriate education on what that is and, critically, who they can go to if they or someone they know is being abused. [Interruption.]