Current status: Answered by Paul McLennan on 31 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations in the Shelter Scotland report, In Their Own Words: Children’s Experiences in Temporary Accommodation, whether it will ensure that homelessness legislation is brought within the scope of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Section 6 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024 makes it unlawful for a public authority to act, or to fail to act, in a way that is incompatible with the UNCRC requirements. The section 6 compatibility duty in that Act applies when a public authority is delivering functions conferred by or under an Act of the Scottish Parliament or common law. All of the free standing provisions in the Housing (Scotland) Bill and those provisions that amend Acts of the Scottish Parliament will be in scope for this compatibility duty. This includes protections for tenants and provisions to help prevent homelessness.
There are some provisions on homelessness that are conferred by Acts of the UK Parliament. As housing is devolved to the Scottish Parliament, it would be possible to bring these provisions into the scope of the section 6 compatibility duty by re-enacting them in Acts of the Scottish Parliament. (The same is true of all devolved measures that are conferred by Acts of the UK Parliament.) However, that would be a time-consuming task that would have a significant impact on the Scottish Parliament’s law-making capacity.
Our hope is that, through engagement with the UK Government, there may be a more straightforward way of extending the reach of the compatibility duty in the UNCRC Act (and other future human rights protections), which would not require the re-enactment of individual Acts of the UK Parliament. Next steps are being considered.