The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S6M-16705, in the name of Tess White, on addressing sexual violence in Scotland’s hospitals. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament considers that single-sex spaces for women and girls across Scotland’s public services are being eroded, with worrying implications for their rights and safety; acknowledges what it sees as the fundamental importance of the dignity, privacy and safety of women and girls in sanitary and changing facilities, as well as in hospital settings where women and children are often at their most vulnerable; highlights the Women’s Rights Network Scotland report, How safe are our Scottish hospitals?, authored by Carolyn Brown and Mary Howden and published in March 2025, which found that, over a five-year period between 2019 and 2024, 276 sexual assaults and 12 rapes took place across 57 hospitals; considers that the actual figures will likely be much higher given that, it understands, data is not routinely kept by all Scottish hospitals; notes in particular that 22 sexual assaults and one rape reportedly took place in NHS Grampian over this period, while 17 sexual assaults and three rapes reportedly took place in NHS Tayside, with, it understands, a high number occurring on hospital wards; believes that hospitals should be a place of safety for patients and staff, and notes the view that urgent action should be taken to address any sexual violence on the NHS estate, and further notes the view that such action should include the introduction of robust and transparent record keeping procedures to help inform preventative practices, as well as accommodating women on single-sex wards wherever possible and protecting single-sex spaces for biological female patients and staff.
17:33
I welcome the opportunity to lead this members’ business debate on sexual violence in Scotland’s hospitals. I thank Michelle Thomson for supporting the motion and allowing it to achieve cross-party support. That means that we can shine a much-needed light on a serious safeguarding issue in Scotland’s national health service.
I pay tribute to the Women’s Rights Network Scotland, which is represented in the public gallery, especially Mary Howden and Carolyn Brown, who authored the sobering report—which I have with me here—“How safe are our Scottish hospitals?”
Once again, it is a grass-roots women’s organisation that has brought concerns about safety and safeguarding in Scotland’s public sector to the fore. The Sunday Post has built on that work in recent weeks by exposing the issue and holding the Scottish National Party Government to account. The WRN submitted close to 200 freedom of information requests to Police Scotland and surveyed 198 hospital settings over a five-year period. Data was made available for only 57 of those hospitals, which is just 29 per cent of Scotland’s total. It showed that, between 2019 and 2024, 276 sexual assaults and 12 rapes were reported and 163 sexual assaults and rapes occurred on hospital wards. Twenty-two sexual assaults and one rape took place in NHS Grampian, in my region, and 17 sexual assaults and three rapes took place in NHS Tayside. Out of a total of 288 incidents, only 156 individuals were charged.
Those are spine-chilling figures. By no means is that a complete picture. We do not have data for almost two thirds of Scotland’s NHS and private hospitals. Underreporting and a lack of data management mean that we simply do not know the full scale of the problem. We can all agree that even one sexual assault in our NHS is too many.
Whether it is to receive medical care ourselves or to visit a poorly loved one, we are often at our most vulnerable when we enter a hospital. We are placing our physical and psychological safety in the hands of health boards and NHS staff. We are entrusting our children and our family to their care. We must be able to do so without fear. Staff, too, are vulnerable. Members will recall the shocking revelations in autumn 2023 about female surgeons being sexually assaulted and harassed by male colleagues in the operating theatre. The safety of patients, visitors and staff must be the SNP Government’s top priority when it comes to the NHS.
I was extremely concerned to learn that some women are afraid to seek treatment because of the potential risk to their safety. I hope that the minister will address that in closing the debate. Earlier this year, I raised with the First Minister concerns about the Carseview psychiatric unit in NHS Tayside, which has mixed-sex wards. The WRN’s research suggests that seven sexual assaults and two rapes took place in this so-called secure psychiatric setting.
One of my constituents received treatment in Carseview for postpartum psychosis following the birth of her second baby. I understand that, at that most vulnerable point in her life, she was repeatedly subjected to another patient exposing himself. She was terrified and traumatised, she was separated from her support network and she was scared for her safety on a mixed-sex ward. How can that be? Where was the duty of care? For women giving birth or accessing support for serious mental ill health or learning disabilities, safeguarding has to be of paramount importance.
The Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee recently heard evidence that 90 per cent of women with learning difficulties and disabilities have been subjected to sexual abuse, with 68 per cent of them experiencing sexual abuse before turning 18. Women have been raped or sexually assaulted at Scottish maternity hospitals on at least five different occasions, and one of those rapes was reported at Aberdeen maternity hospital. Sexual assaults have also been reported in other psychiatric units and palliative settings.
That cannot go on. We must see urgent action from the SNP Government, health boards, NHS partners and Police Scotland to allay the concerns of women and girls.
What is the way ahead? I often say that we cannot manage what we cannot measure. I understand that Healthcare Improvement Scotland is working to standardise the reporting of incidents, and that is to be welcomed, but we need details from the Scottish Government on how that will operate in practice. To address the risks and weaknesses and to put preventative policies in place, we need to see the data.
There is a wider issue about mixed-sex wards. Protecting single-sex spaces in our public sector should be at the top of the policy agenda, and I have had rigorous exchanges with SNP ministers on that issue. Since 2005, the Scottish Government has expected health boards to ensure that their facilities comply with the guidelines and recommendations on the elimination of mixed-sex accommodation that were published 25 years ago. However, that is just not happening on the ground, and I think that that is evident from the data.
Our hospitals must be safe for people—especially women and children—who access those settings. The SNP Government must act swiftly to address sexual violence in Scotland’s hospitals. [Applause.]
Thank you, Ms White. I say to our visitors in the gallery, who are all most welcome in the Parliament, that we do not have clapping in the gallery because we, MSPs, are the participants in the process. However, visitors are very welcome to observe the process from the gallery. Thank you for your co-operation.
17:40
I am pleased to contribute to this evening’s debate, and I thank my colleague Tess White for bringing this important issue to the chamber. I also congratulate Mary Howden and Carolyn Brown on publishing the report.
The stark point is that, as we have heard, between 2019 and 2024, 276 sexual assaults and 23 rapes took place in 57 hospitals in Scotland. Those incidents included 11 cases of sexual assault in NHS Forth Valley, 34 in NHS Fife and 17 in NHS Tayside, all of which fall within my region. However, the Women’s Rights Network report points out that those incidents are just the ones that we know about and that there are many that we do not know about. When we debate the threat to single-sex spaces and the need to protect those spaces in settings such as hospitals, we must take into account the wider context. We will continue to highlight that issue in the chamber, even if the Government would rather not debate and discuss it.
One of my biggest issues with sexual violence in hospitals is the lack of reporting. The Women’s Rights Network report reveals that data on sexual assault is not routinely kept by NHS boards or Police Scotland. The report sets out that 67 per cent of hospitals simply did not collect the data and that a further 4 per cent refused to reveal the data on the grounds of privacy. That means that many of those situations are not known about.
What is the true extent of the issue in our health boards across Scotland? What procedures and guidance are in place for Police Scotland to deal with those incidents? The report concludes that there is no evidence of a coherent data-keeping system and that the recording of data on sexual assaults has to improve. That should be the case—it has to improve.
We need to ensure that there is robust transparency when it comes to that issue in our hospitals, and the report rightly calls for measures in that regard to be introduced. However, several reports from the Care Quality Commission have already made the same recommendations, only to be ignored. How many more incidents will it take to force the Scottish Government to take the issue seriously and take action?
As well as improving records, we must ensure that safeguarding measures are put in place and that they are transparent for patients in hospitals. Regardless of the law surrounding the issue, the proven track record is complex. We understand that, but urgent action needs to be taken to address the scourge of sexual violence in Scotland’s hospitals. It is time for the denial to stop and for information to be clarified.
My party will continue to display the leadership and the drive to ensure that public sector organisations and health boards have some direction on this issue. Directives should require them to prepare single-sex spaces for biological women and girls. That should be the minimum that we are looking at. In most cases, that would simply remind organisations of their legal obligation—something that even the First Minister has accepted is crystal clear.
Women and girls deserve nothing less than a clear, commonsense approach when it comes to hospital safety. I urge the Scottish Government to seek the data and ensure that it is provided. We must take action to ensure that that data is required to be produced. Hospitals should be a safe place for treatment, not an environment for sexual violence.
17:45
I thank Tess White for securing this debate on the research that has been undertaken by the Women’s Rights Network into safety in hospitals. I was able to highlight that research in a debate last week, and I have raised the report at First Minister’s question time. I felt that the response that I received on that occasion could have been more expansive, so I hope that the minister is able to engage more fully with the topic this evening.
I thank the Women’s Rights Network for its work in exposing the levels of sexual assaults and rapes in our hospitals. It was not an easy task. It was laborious, as, at first, the figures were not available, but the researchers persisted. By identifying the number of rapes and sexual assaults taking place in hospitals in Scotland through freedom of information requests, they have highlighted the extent of the problem, and the figures are shocking.
Almost 250 sexual assaults and rapes have taken place in Scottish hospitals over the past five years. Some 163 of those rapes and sexual assaults happened on hospital wards, although it is important to say that we do not know whether they are single-sex or mixed-sex wards. The figures from Police Scotland are more shocking, as they reveal that those incidents took place in only 57 of the 198 hospitals in Scotland. If we take into account the fact that the figures include the pandemic years, when the hospital population was reduced and the number of visitors was heavily restricted, it is clear that those figures are likely to reflect underreporting, and those offences are often underreported across society anyway.
As well as shining a light on those horrendous crimes, the report highlights the areas in which there is a lack of information, which makes it more challenging to provide a policy response.
Patients in hospitals are vulnerable, frail and dependent on others to meet their needs. At times, they will be unconscious or disorientated. They are often in a state of undress, and they are in unfamiliar surroundings.
We know the pressure that our hospitals are under. In Fife, ambulances regularly have to wait outside accident and emergency departments as people cannot be admitted, and through-flow is at times impossible as there is a lack of suitable beds. The recent report from the Royal College of Nursing describes a collapse in care standards across Scotland’s hospitals, with increasing reports of corridor care, which results in people being left vulnerable and in undignified settings. All of those conditions could lead to opportunistic attacks.
The limited information that the Women’s Rights Network was able to obtain leaves many unanswered questions. When we are thinking about how to respond and how to improve safeguarding and security, there are many uncertainties. It is not certain whether assaults were carried out by other patients or staff, or whether they were carried out on patients or staff, although the high number that took place on a hospital ward suggests that patients are often the victims.
Most concerning was that the research found that assaults were not routinely recorded. It would appear that, sometimes, they are underplayed or minimised, as if the setting excuses some behaviours. That is reflected in the fact that 133 hospitals do not hold the data.
The First Minister was right when he said that all sexual assaults are against the law and that they should be immediately reported to the police. That is similar to the statements from NHS boards, which say that, when incidents are reported, people are encouraged to report to the police. However, I do not think that those responses sufficiently reflect the significance of the location and our responsibility to NHS patients and staff. There is little examination of the figures, there is little understanding of why Stobhill hospital, the Edinburgh royal infirmary and the Cygnet Wallace private hospital have the highest rates, and there is hardly any discussion about why women should accept being at greater risk in psychiatric hospitals.
There is scant evidence that the figures are being taken seriously as a collective issue by NHS boards or the Government. There is no piece of work that asks why this situation is happening in hospitals and what steps are being taken to prevent further rapes and assaults.
The report from the Women’s Rights Network makes a number of recommendations, and I urge the Scottish Government and NHS boards to consider how to make progress on them. The recommendations include steps to minimise the risk of sexual assault, to maintain accurate recording of incidents and to make greater progress on single-sex wards in all settings. We must not ignore that research, and we must take action.
17:49
I thank Tess White for bringing the debate to the chamber. I will focus my comments on the first line of today’s motion, which is:
“That the Parliament considers that single-sex spaces for women and girls across Scotland’s public services are being eroded, with worrying implications for their rights and safety”.
The issue of protecting single-sex spaces for women is being spoken about everywhere. It is talked about in the streets, at the school gates, in the pubs, in the media on a daily basis and now even in the legal system, with the on-going case of brave Fife nurse Sandie Peggie. Today, I want to talk about three specific areas where the Scottish Government’s abject failure to protect single-sex spaces for women is being felt most painfully.
The first area is schools. As of 2024, not all secondaries in Scotland provided suitable single-sex toilets. Forcing young girls to share facilities with teenage boys is utterly shameful, and most parents cannot believe that we have got ourselves into that position. We know from evidence that is provided to us by girls that it is making them scared to use the bathrooms at schools, which causes them to miss lessons or perhaps not even turn up to school at all.
It may be an uncomfortable issue for the Government to think about, but when a girl is going through her early teenage years, it is—as all females across the chamber are well aware—an incredibly difficult time for her. The idea that schoolgirls should have to go through experiences such as beginning their monthly periods while pushing past boys to get into a small cubicle that leaves a gap at the top of the door, separated from those boys only by a door that is a quarter of an inch thick, is utterly inhumane. The First Minister must drop the hesitation and the placating of various fringe groups and issue a simple order: that all secondary schools and public services must provide suitable separate toilets for girls as a matter of the utmost urgency.
We know that the younger members of society are being affected by this issue, and so too are the most vulnerable. The situation in women’s prisons is beyond a joke. We have well-documented cases that have made Scotland a global laughing stock, from double rapists putting on blonde wigs to gain a place in a female prison to male inmates having state-facilitated surgery to shave down an Adam’s apple. Those examples would be comical if they were not so deadly serious. The Parliament hears a lot about the vulnerability of women prisoners and how so many of them have endured violent sexual and physical abuse at the hands of men. When those accounts are shared, the Scottish Government nods its head in sympathy. At the same time, however, it does little to keep them safe from predatory males inside prison walls. From recent media reports, it appears that that now includes female visitors who are visiting male prisons being subjected to searches that are conducted by male-bodied trans women.
We also have the example of the police. Earlier this month, a leading lawyer warned that Police Scotland could run into the same difficulties that NHS Fife is facing. She said that female police officers, for obvious reasons, do not want to share changing facilities with men, but that they are also likely to be too scared to raise the matter, fearful of an employment tribunal, suspension or an end to what could otherwise be a strong and successful career—all on the altar of a dangerous gender ideology designed by the SNP Government and pandered to by everyone else except the Scottish Conservatives.
I hope that every member in the chamber can get behind Tess White’s motion today, but I especially hope that female members do so. We have a particular duty to women and girls across Scotland, and we must stand up for them.
17:53
I thank Tess White for bringing the debate to the chamber. I had the opportunity to attend the event that she sponsored in Parliament a few weeks ago, at which the Women’s Rights Network presented its findings to MSPs and guests. I have to say that those findings were profoundly shocking.
It is beyond question that our hospitals should be places where patients and staff alike know that they will be kept safe and treated with dignity. As Tess White said, the report tells us that, of the 288 sexual assaults and rapes that were recorded in Scottish hospitals in the past five years, more than half occurred on a hospital ward. The surroundings where those assaults took place included a children’s hospital, two maternity hospitals and a palliative care hospital.
Shockingly, as we have already heard, Police Scotland could give details of only 29 per cent of cases, so the real number of sexual assaults will be far higher, as many will go unreported. The opportunity to commit sexual assaults will, I believe, be increased because we still have mixed-sex wards.
For 20 years now, first Scottish Labour and then SNP Administrations have required health boards to eliminate mixed-sex accommodation in our hospitals, yet in 2024, only two health board areas—Dumfries and Galloway and Orkney—confirmed that they offered single-sex accommodation across all their wards. The remaining 12 health boards that replied offered mixed-sex accommodation in at least some of their wards—a far cry from the pledge by the SNP. I wonder whether the minister can tell me now, or in summing up, whether that situation has improved at all.
If the SNP Government had kept its promise, we might not have the level of abuse that goes on in our hospitals today. How disappointing it is that women are let down and that, even when the Government commits to a clear principle, it simply fails to deliver in practice.
So, will the Government commit to urgently working with health boards and Police Scotland to investigate the circumstances of those assaults, including whether they happened on mixed-sex wards? Will it ensure that there is, in the NHS, more accurate recording and reporting of sexual crimes in the future? What action will be taken to prevent such assaults from happening in the first place?
The report demonstrates that our hospitals are not as safe as they should be. The reality is that, too often, women are stuck not even in mixed-sex wards but in corridors. Most members in the chamber will be aware of the recent report from the Royal College of Nursing, in which one Scottish nurse described having to use privacy screens around patients so that they could use the bedpan. As the director of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland said,
“This is completely unacceptable for patient safety and staff wellbeing.”
I could not agree more with those comments.
All that remains for me to ask is this: will the SNP Government live up to its long-standing pledge to end mixed-sex wards, or will we be here in a year’s time discussing yet another report of increased numbers of women experiencing assaults in NHS Scotland?
17:57
I congratulate Tess White on bringing this important debate to the chamber, and I congratulate the Women’s Rights Network on its report.
Observers of proceedings in the chamber and in some of our committees over the past months may conclude that sex realists are from Venus and gender ideologists are from Mars, such is the difference between the two positions, so I seek now to bring some clarity where confusion has been reigning across all levels of the Government and in our public sector.
I start with the purpose and effect of the Equality Act 2010. Its purpose is to balance rights across nine protected characteristics, but those rights are not hierarchical, as some people seem to believe that they are. Its effect is to protect individuals from discrimination, harassment and victimisation, based on those protected characteristics. The purpose of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 is to ensure the health, safety, welfare, privacy and dignity of employees, and the effect of those regulations is to ensure that employees are provided with legally compliant welfare facilities, including single-sex toilets, changing rooms and washing facilities.
The certainty of the protections that are provided by the Health and Safety Executive regulations and the 2010 act cannot be overridden by internal policies, and equality impact assessments are not nice-to-haves.
I will bust some myths, given the confusion around the case-by-case approach that the Government seems to be labouring under at the moment. Public bodies and the Government appear to think that access to single-sex provision must be decided on an individual case-by-case basis, and that blanket policies that exclude all males from female-only spaces are unlawful. That is wrong. Blanket policies that exclude all males, regardless of how they identify, are lawful, and the fairness of a policy must be assessed not on the fairness of its application to individuals but on the application of the policy.
It is critical to understand that sex-based safeguarding is a result of the risk of mixed-sex access in vulnerable situations. The consequence for women arising from the risk of access by any males in female-only spaces—be they prisons, hospital wards, changing rooms or toilets—is that it removes that sex-based safeguarding. Allowing the introduction of risk by removing the assurance of single-sex spaces is a dereliction of governance and fails women.
Data is also critical to good governance, and there are clear obligations on that under the law. The Istanbul convention requires state parties to collect data on all forms of violence against women. As a minimum requirement, recorded data on victims and perpetrators should be disaggregated by sex, age and type of violence, as well as by the relationship of the perpetrator to the victim and the geographical location. Therefore, for hospitals and other public bodies to fail to collect that data on forms of violence against women is a breach of international obligations and a failure by the state with regard to women.
The Government must get a grip on that outrageous situation and demonstrate that Scotland values and will protect the safety, privacy and dignity of women and girls. Quite frankly, we expect nothing less.
18:01
I thank Tess White for bringing the debate to the chamber. I welcome the speeches by members who have already spoken on this really important matter. I will make a short contribution, following on from questions that I have asked the cabinet secretary and the minister about the provision of single-sex toilets.
For context, as others have said, single-sex spaces that are based on biological sex are protected under the Equality Act 2010. Women and girls have a right to feel safe in our public buildings such as schools and hospitals. They are often in those places when they are at their most vulnerable and, further, they require to attend those places, so Government has a responsibility to ensure that those places are safe and comply with the law.
Recently, we have heard about patients having to wait in corridors and the strain that the NHS is under. Given that, we can see why people are asking the Government to engage with them in light of the “How safe are our Scottish hospitals?” report.
We can all agree that the report’s findings are particularly worrying. For 20 years, the Scottish Government, first under Scottish Labour and now under the SNP, has required health boards to eliminate mixed-sex accommodations in hospitals. However, as my colleague Jackie Baillie indicated, at the moment, we think that only two health boards comply with that: NHS Dumfries and Galloway and NHS Orkney. That is unacceptable, and I believe that the Government must take some responsibility for it. I agree with my colleague Claire Baker and others who have said that the Government needs to have more engagement with us on those matters so that we can get the information that is required.
To go back to the questions that I asked the cabinet secretary and the minister, the issue is about engagement. I asked three separate questions—one in the chamber, to the cabinet secretary, and two written questions—on the provision of single-sex toilets. However, I feel that the Government was unable to give me full answers about the way in which it is ensuring that the laws are being applied in Scotland, and I feel that it is important for the Government to take responsibility in that regard.
The cabinet secretary’s response to the question that I asked in the chamber was:
“I say once again that those regulations are also included in the Government’s belief that all public bodies should fulfil their obligations under all pieces of legislation with reference to this issue.”—[Official Report, 25 February 2025; c 15.]
If the cabinet secretary is saying that that is the Government’s belief, I think that, possibly, the Government should be doing more.
I will end by asking the minister whether the Government can give us assurance that it will take some responsibility and look to assess the current situation in our NHS and other organisations, particularly ones to which the Government provides public funds. Gathering that information should not be difficult, but I think that it is essential.
18:04
I will not take much time, Presiding Officer. I have just decided to say a few words, after listening to my colleagues today.
I thank the Women’s Rights Network for its report. I was at the event that has been referred to, and I found the information to be quite shocking and stark. I am not sure whether the minister or the cabinet secretary were at the event, but I hope that they have read the report, which is incredibly shocking, as others have said.
I do not think that the Government can continue to obfuscate on this particular issue with regard to protection of women and girls. It has quoted the Equality Act 2010 ad verbum, and we know that those protections are already set out in the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, as Ash Regan said.
The public are losing patience and are, I am afraid to say, losing trust in the Scottish Government’s ability to protect women and girls. The report refers to the women’s health plan. We fly that high and are proud to talk about the work that is going on in respect of that plan. However, the SNP Government does the same in this respect as it does with some of the other targets that it has set. The Scottish Government says that the priority is to reduce inequalities in outcomes for women with regard to general health, but we know, from looking at the content of the WRN report, that the Scottish Government is adopting a policy of self-identification.
We did not pass the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, but self-ID seems to have seeped into the minds of those in all public organisations, and into the guidance that is being produced. That is damaging and has led to sexual assaults and rapes in hospitals, which is absolutely disgraceful. We do not even have clear data on that, because Police Scotland—as Sharon Dowey said—is not collecting data on sex or age, and the hospitals are not collecting data, so nobody knows the true extent of the damage that self-ID is doing.
I therefore ask the minister: how can we reduce inequalities? The situation is absolutely shameful. How can we protect women? It is absolutely right that the minister and the Scottish Government will—I hope—take the report 100 per cent seriously, and it is right that a cabinet secretary and a minister should come to the chamber and answer, once and for all, the questions that all of us in the chamber tonight have been asking for weeks on end without a result.
18:07
Every member who has spoken in the debate today recognises that violence against women and girls is abhorrent and unacceptable. That is the case in our hospital estate, as it is in every part of our society. It is shocking and depressing that it remains the case that there is violence, including sexual violence, at the hands of men wherever women live and work. I agree with what Tess White said in her opening speech that one attack in a hospital or anywhere else is one too many.
Such violence has a profound, long-lasting and devastating impact on the lives of women and girls, and those around them. It damages health and wellbeing, limits freedom and potential, and is a fundamental violation of human rights. In my office, I have a 16 days of activism against violence against women candle. I see it every day, and the movement is something that I very much understand and support. Although I have not read the WRN report in its entirety, I have read some summaries of it, and it is shocking.
We are, I think united together in our recognition that the drivers of violence against women and girls are firmly anchored in the behaviour of men. It is men who must accept that they need to do much more to deliver the culture and the national change that is necessary to remove that stain that remains with us. As the First Minister said during the debate to mark the annual 16 days of activism against gender-based violence campaign last year,
“men must take up the challenge ... about being a better guy and reflecting on our own behaviour.” —[Official Report, 5 December 2024; c 116.]
Violence against women and girls is, and always will be, an issue that the Government takes seriously. That is reflected in our partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities through “Equally Safe: Scotland’s Strategy for Preventing and Eradicating Violence Against Women and Girls”. The strategy sets out a vision of
“A strong and flourishing”
country
“where all individuals are ... safe and respected, and where women and girls live free from all forms of violence, abuse and ... the attitudes that ... perpetuate it.”
The strategy works to prevent violence
“from occurring in the first place”
and to build and sustain the capability and capacity of support services and strengthen the justice response to victims and perpetrators.
A number of members have commented on single-sex spaces for women in hospitals. Jackie Baillie is correct that, since 2005, we have expected NHS boards to ensure that their facilities comply with guidelines on the elimination of mixed-sex accommodations. In all new hospital developments, there should be a presumption that there will be 100 per cent single rooms, and where existing accommodation has been refurbished, that the figure will be as close to 100 per cent as possible.
Will the minister take an intervention?
I am just going to continue, if Tess White does not mind.
There are limited exceptions for areas such as intensive care units. Within our hospitals, a number of health boards are participating in the equally safe at work employer accreditation programme. Alongside our commitment to the equally safe strategy, NHS once for Scotland policies on gender-based violence and sexual harassment—
Will the minister take an intervention?
I am going to continue, if the member does not mind.
Those policies are due to be published soon and will provide a standardised approach for all health boards. We are also working with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh to roll out its “Let’s remove it” campaign, which is designed to raise awareness of sexual misconduct. Furthermore, we have been working with Police Scotland and other parties, using the your safety matters initiative, on tackling violence and aggression across our front-line services.
In addition, supporting survivors is key. In order to support victims and change attitudes, we are providing more than £5.3 million to rape crisis centres through our delivering equally safe fund. We have taken robust action to tackle sexual offending and we are encouraging more victims to come forward, improving support and modernising the law on sexual offences. It is vital that we progress our vision for justice and that we deliver a truly person-centred and trauma-informed system through the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill.
The Minister for Equalities recently announced a £2.4 million increase to the delivering equally safe fund for 2025-26. That will allow all funding recipients to continue the vital work that they undertake to prevent violence and to support survivors of violence against women and girls.
Stopping violence against women and girls before it occurs must be central to our collective efforts. To do that, we must tackle the root cause of the problem—
Will the minister take an intervention?
I am just going to continue—
I am trying to be helpful; it is not intended to be—
I am happy to take an intervention from Claire Baker.
Thank you, minister.
We are talking about hospitals. As the minister will know, in six out of seven cases of rape against women, it is a person whom they know who carries out the offence. One would surmise that in a hospital, however, such things might be more opportunistic, with a stranger carrying out the crime. Will the Government look at that and undertake more examination of the figures that we have in the public domain?
I thank Claire Baker for that intervention. I agree that we have to look at the data and collect more of it, which is why we are continuing to work with Healthcare Improvement Scotland to improve recording and reporting. I hope that that gives some comfort to Ms Baker.
Stopping violence against women and girls before it occurs must be central to our collective efforts. To do that, we must tackle the root cause of the problem, which—as I said—is gender inequality. Women’s inequality is both a cause and a consequence of violence against women, which is why the equally safe strategy emphasises the importance of primary prevention and focuses on the structures, systems, policies and assumptions that we live with.
In addition to working with Healthcare Improvement Scotland, we are working closely with Police Scotland on reporting of sexual crimes, and through our your safety matters partnership group.
Will the minister take an intervention?
I am concluding.
It is through addressing the fundamental causes of violence against women and girls that we can effectively respond to this critical issue. Hospitals should be places of safety for patients and staff, and their safety is paramount. Assaults on patients or staff are abhorrent, and all instances of violent behaviour, including sexual assaults, should be reported and escalated to the police as quickly as possible.
I have listened to what many members have said during the debate, and I will comment on two points. Tomorrow morning, I will meet Professor Anna Glasier, who is Scotland’s wonderful women’s health champion, and I will take the discussion from the debate to her, in order to have a further conversation with her.
I would also be content to engage with members who have taken part in the debate, because I think that it is important that we have a cross-party solution to the issue, and a cross-party approach to how we can work better with our health boards.
I believe that violence against women reflects the worst aspects of our society, and we must do more to ensure that women and girls are safe, feel safe and are respected.
That concludes the debate.
Meeting closed at 18:15.
Air ais
Decision Time