Meeting of the Parliament 18 March 2026 [Draft]
I have the privilege of having lodged all the amendments in the group, so I look forward to hearing comments from members around the chamber.
There are essentially two elements to the amendments that sit in group 2. The first relates to amendments 98 to 107 and 144. I drafted amendments 99 to 102—the other amendments are simply consequential—to highlight the importance of the bill’s provisions as they relate to the scope of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Members will be aware of the many efforts that have been made since the passing of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 to ensure—and there have been assurances in this regard from the Scottish Government on many occasions—that our legislation will take into account pre-devolution matters, so that our young people can enforce their rights in a simple and straightforward way. The purpose behind these amendments is to address that. The amendments would provide a legal landscape around children in care. The situation urgently needs simplification, which is a key ask of the Promise that the legislation has failed to deliver on.
The bill is anything but simple, and members in the next session of the Parliament, which might look drastically different in terms of who comes here, will urgently have to look again at the situation. The purpose behind my amendments is to bring to the fore the importance of the UNCRC, which this Parliament and this Scottish Government absolutely agree on, and to start to see some evidence of that in legislation.
Amendment 108 takes a different approach. I am fully aware that there is a dichotomy and a challenge between amendment 108 and the other amendments in this group, and I look forward to hearing from the minister and perhaps others on whether we can resolve the challenge. Amendment 108 would build on the provisions that were introduced by Nicola Sturgeon at stage 2. It seeks to introduce a clear and unambiguous right for young people who have left a care setting to return. If the Parliament is serious about acting as a parent to children in care, that is one of the bare minimum standards that we should look to achieve.
For many parents, the idea that their own children would be unable to return to home is unthinkable, but that is the reality that care-experienced young people face, and amendment 108, alongside the provisions previously introduced by Nicola Sturgeon, would represent a transformational step towards ensuring that every care-experienced young person can grow up safe, respected and loved—a word that was first introduced as a concept in legislation when it was embodied in the Promise.
I move amendment 99.