Children (Withdrawal from Religious Education and Amendment of UNCRC Compatibility Duty) (Scotland) Bill

Closes 1 Sep 2025

Opened 20 Jun 2025

Contact

Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee

ehrcj.committee@parliament.scot

Overview

The Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee is seeking views on the Children (Withdrawal from Religious Education and Amendment of UNCRC Incompatibility Duty (Scotland) Bill.

Your views will inform the Committee's scrutiny. 

About this call for views

The Bill was introduced into the Scottish Parliament by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills on 30 April 2025. The Committee invites all interested organisations and individuals to submit your views on the provisions of the Bill.

The Bill and its accompanying documents are available on the Scottish Parliament’s website.

Who we would like to hear from

We welcome responses from a wide range of individuals and organisations, including:

  • Members of the public
  • Human and children's rights bodies
  • Teachers
  • Academics with an interest in children's rights
  • Local authorities
  • Any other stakeholders with an interest in this legislation

How to contribute

Please answer the call for views by completing the submission form below.

You don’t have to answer all the questions. If you would prefer to send in a statement which does not cover any of the questions, please get in touch with the Committee at ehrcj.committee@parliament.scot.

Questions in the call for views

  1. What are your views on the proposed changes in the Bill to require that a child is informed if their parent asks for them to be withdrawn from either or both RME/RE and religious observance in school
  2. What are your views on the proposed changes in the Bill to require that a child is given the chance to express their views; and where the child’s views are different from the parent’s views, the school would have to follow the child’s wishes?
  3. What do you anticipate being the implications of this Bill for schools, pupils and parents?
  4. What insights or experiences do you have regarding how the right to withdraw from religious observance and RME/RE currently works in schools?
  5. This Bill will introduce an exemption to the section 6 compatibility duty of the UNCRC Act in circumstances where a public authority is compelled to act incompatibly with UNCRC requirements in fulfilment of another Act of the Scottish Parliament. This mirrors the approach taken to Acts of the UK Parliament. Do you have any thoughts on this approach?
  6. Have you got any other comments on the Bill?

How to submit your views

Please submit your views using the online submission form, linked to below.

We welcome written views in English, Gaelic, Scots or any other language. 

The call for views closes on 1 September 2025.

Analysis

The Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) will prepare a summary and analysis of responses.

If we receive a very high volume of submissions, this may need to be prepared based on a sample of submissions.

Confidentiality and publication of responses

Please let us know if you wish your response to remain confidential. You can also ask for your submission to be anonymised.

We aim to publish all the submissions we receive. The only exceptions are where submissions are made on a “confidential” or “not for publication” basis.

If we receive a very high volume of submissions, we may not have the resources to process and publish them all.

Give us your views

Click here to complete the submission form

Interests

  • EHRCJ