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Motion · S6M-16705 · 4 Mar 2025

Addressing Sexual Violence in Scotland’s Hospitals

Lodged by Tess White Members' Business Motion 21 supporters

The motion

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.

Supporters (21)

Source: the Scottish Parliament motions and amendments record.