Scottish Human Rights Bill omitted from programme for government

04 September 2024

Scottish civil society organisations are outraged by the omission of a Scottish human rights bill, promised by the SNP government since 2018 and included in the 2023-24 legislative programme, from the 2024-25 programme for government published on 4 September and introduced to Parliament by the First Minister John Swinney.  The bill is not specifically referred to in either the First Minister's statement or the published document, but merely omitted from the list of bills proposed to be introduced during the next parliamentary year.

A letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice to the Convener of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee explains the Scottish Government’s reasoning for the decision not to legislate.

The SHRC said

The Scottish Human Rights Commission is deeply disappointed that First Minister John Swinney today failed to deliver the new Human Rights Bill for Scotland in his Programme for Government. This is not where we expected to be. 

As Scotland’s National Human Rights Institution, we had been clear on our shared expectation that the long-promised Human Rights Bill would be introduced in the current Parliamentary session.
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First Minister's statement and debate

SHRC full statement

Cabinet Secretary's letter

Programme for government 2024-25  full document (47 page PDF)