Children (Withdrawal from Religious Education and Amendment of UNCRC Compatibility Duty) (Scotland) Bill: island communities impact assessment

Step Two – Gather your data and identify your stakeholders

Religious Observance and Religious and Moral Education in Schools: While information on school rolls at a national level is routinely published as part of the pupil census summary statistics, this is not broken down by local authority. Therefore, there is no specific analysis available about the distribution of smaller school rolls in island communities relative to urban areas.

While census data on religion based on local authority, electoral ward and output area is available, there is no clear pattern which consistently distinguishes religion across island areas from the Scottish mainland.

Key stakeholders are school pupils, parents of those pupils, head teachers/school leaders, RME teachers and their representative bodies, local authorities, children and young people organisations, faith and belief organisations and bodies representing secularism and Humanism.

There are a wide range of stakeholder views on this issue, with some objecting to any legislative changes and others of the view that far more radical change is needed, for example providing a parallel right to withdraw for learners (Humanist Society Scotland) or, by contrast removing the right to withdraw entirely for either or both RO and RME. The proposed change presents a ‘middle ground’ which supports alignment with the UNCRC by ensuring children’s views are considered, as well as supporting their right to education including their spiritual development. This is balanced with the need to uphold parental rights, and with the aim of avoiding additional workload for schools which might be disproportionate to the resulting benefits. It is important to note that no consultation responses were received which explicitly related to the experience of those in island communities, and this is something officials will work to address in the development of the guidance to accompany the implementation of any changes.

The Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland (CYPCS) has published her response to the consultation online which raised concerns about the lack of a proposed reciprocal right for a child to withdraw themselves from RO/RME, and noted that, in addition to not significantly improving children’s rights, the proposal may also be incompatible with “parents’ human rights under Articles 8 and 9 and A2P1 of the ECHR, through weakening their existing legal right to withdraw their child from religious observance.”

While the Scottish Government recognises the concerns raised by the Commissioner in relation to the proposals in the consultation, we believe these concerns would not apply to the proposed Bill as currently drafted. This is because the parental right in this case recedes in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child, which in our view is not incompatible with either the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) or the UNCRC.

Scottish Government will continue to engage with stakeholders with an interest in this legislative change including the Humanist Society Scotland (HSS), the Scottish Catholic Education Service (SCES), the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES), Together (Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights) and the Scottish Teachers Association of RME (STARME).

There was limited evidence collected from children during the public consultation process, with only three responses given by children. To begin to address this gap, the Scottish Government met with 4 Members of the Scottish Youth Parliament (MSYPs) to discuss the current proposals as a precursor to more substantial engagement on the development of statutory guidance on RO/RME. Further engagement with children and young people included a further engagement session with a larger group of MSYPs in early September 2025, as well as further detailed engagement with school pupils beginning in Autumn 2025. This additional engagement will inform both the passage of the Bill and planned updated guidance to accompany the implementation of the proposed changes.

Prior to the introduction of the Bill the Scottish Government conducted a survey on the number of pupils that have been withdrawn from either RO or RME or both. The data collected provides input from 98 primary schools and 18 secondary schools across a sample of 3 local authorities (Aberdeenshire, East Renfrewshire and East Lothian), however the sample local authorities did not include any island communities, so there is no data available on the number of pupils currently withdrawn from RO/RME in these areas.

As part of preparations for implementation of the Bill, the Scottish Government is undertaking school-level engagement with pupils and educators and will seek to ensure that island schools are included in this engagement. We will ensure that any feedback we receive is appropriately considered in the development of the updated guidance to accompany the Bill. The policy team will also raise any specific island-related impacts when engaging with stakeholders such as ADES and STARME.

Amendment to the UNCRC Act: The proposed UNCRC Act amendment is not anticipated to have an effect on an island community which is different from the effect on other communities.