The current system places the administration of mandatory charitable rates relief with local authority non-domestic rates departments operating in a revenue and enforcement culture. This leads to lengthy processes and enforcement action against volunteer-led charities qualifying for 80% mandatory relief under the Local Government (Financial Provisions etc.) (Scotland) Act 1962.
Moving to an independent, third sector-led process would allow assessments to be carried out with a better understanding of how voluntary organisations operate, reducing the burden on volunteering communities.
Volunteer Scotland’s April 2025 report shows formal volunteering in Scotland is in crisis. Administrative demands disproportionately burden volunteers who contribute during evenings and weekends, while local authorities use multiple paid officers. This creates unnecessary barriers for small volunteer-led charities.
CAMHS Staff Need Resources, Children Need Assessments
- 3,080 Signatures
A family member was referred to CAMHS Midlothian for an ADHD assessment on 22 March 2022 and triaged on 7 June 2022. More than four years later, he is still waiting for an assessment, with very limited communication from the service.
Following a complaint in 2025, I was informed by a senior CAMHS clinician that increasing demand, staffing shortages and insufficient resources were contributing to long waits for neurodevelopmental assessments. Despite being told the wait would likely be measured in weeks rather than months, he remains on the waiting list over a year later.
This is not solely about my family member. Their experience demonstrates a wider national problem affecting thousands of Scottish children and families. Long waits delay access to support and leave families without answers. Increased investment in CAMHS neurodevelopmental services is needed to reduce waiting times and improve access to assessments across Scotland.
Across Scotland, significant concerns have been raised about children displaying neurodevelopmental behaviours, emotional dysregulation, and other behaviours that place themselves or others at risk. These children often face lengthy delays or repeated referral rejections before receiving an assessment and support.
Families can be left managing serious situations while being told their child does not meet the threshold for intervention. As a result, many children only receive support once they have reached crisis point.
These delays place additional pressure on families, schools, GPs, emergency services, and local authorities, and can force parents to seek costly private assessments.
A guaranteed neurodevelopmental assessment within six months for children where significant behavioural, emotional, or safety-related concerns have been raised would ensure earlier identification of needs, faster access to support, and better outcomes for children and families across Scotland.
Reduce MSP Salaries to the Median Scottish Full-time Income
- 17 Signatures
It became clear during the previous Parliamentary session that MSPs are detached from the lived experience of the nation, with their legislative agendas and priorities not matching the needs of the people of Scotland. As a former First Minister acknowledged, the overly generous pay causes a major perspective skew.
The £77,711 annual salary puts MSPs in the top 7% of UK earners, alongside those working in highly skilled professional jobs that require extensive formal qualifications and/or extensive practical experience. Yet, the MSP position requires neither qualifications nor work experience, has no binding workload, and comes with virtually no accountability, making such remuneration inappropriate.
The Scottish median full-time salary, corresponding to that of a band 5 NHS nurse, would seem more appropriate, and would make our MSPs invested in improving the living standard of the nation.
Capping the MSP salaries at the Scottish median would fund 129 band 5 NHS nurses.
Make Childcare Choice a Right in Scotland
- 560 Signatures
NDNA Scotland, parent campaigners and providers seek national action to make cross-border funded childcare a right. We believe not doing so undermines Funding Follows the Child, parental choice and provider neutrality.
Two local authorities, Edinburgh and West Lothian, have made decisions meaning children entitled to nationally funded childcare places who live outside the council area can only access places in council run nurseries, and cannot access private, voluntary, and independent nurseries. Removing parental choice has significantly impacted families. They have had to move children from trusted nurseries, separate siblings, change work patterns, and face extra costs. This means losing familiar relationships, routines and support at a crucial stage in children’s development. Around 100 families in West Lothian are affected, having chosen a nursery that met their child’s needs and family circumstances. These decisions show how council boundaries are limiting a national entitlement and risk a domino effect in other areas.
I am calling on the Scottish Government to tighten laws over parental access where the parent has been convicted of a child sexual or domestic abuse offence. The current legislative regime leaves the decision to the civil courts which can cause delay and distress and risk of immediate harm. The placing of an offender on the sex offenders register should mean automatic removal of parental rights. The rights and protections of children should come above the rights of the offender.
The Victims and Prisoners Bill in England and Wales aims to introduce stricter controls over the access of convicted sex offenders and domestic abusers have to their children. The Scottish Government should follow suit. If a person can be placed on the sex offenders register in the criminal court, it should also be possible to simultaneously remove parental rights preventing any immediate risk of harm only to be restored by application and approval in the civil courts.
AEDs are widely deployed across Scotland in public buildings, workplaces and community locations, playing a vital role in responding to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. More than 3,000 people suffer cardiac arrest in Scotland each year, yet survival remains low. Early defibrillation is critical, with survival chances falling significantly for every minute treatment is delayed.
The Circuit database, the UK-wide national defibrillator network developed by the British Heart Foundation in partnership with the NHS and emergency services, helps ambulance services direct 999 callers to the nearest registered AED. However, there is currently no legal requirement for AEDs to be registered, inspected or routinely maintained. Devices may therefore contain expired pads, depleted batteries or faults, rendering them unusable in an emergency.
In contrast, Scottish fire safety law mandates fire extinguisher maintenance, despite 42 fire-related deaths in 2023–24. This petition calls for similar legislation for AEDs to help save lives.
Protect Scotland’s volunteer-run community fairs and gala days
- 650 Signatures
Volunteer-run community fairs and gala days play an important role in bringing local communities together. However, organisers are increasingly concerned that rising costs, growing bureaucracy and complex licensing requirements are placing these events under significant pressure.
In areas such as Edinburgh, organisers report increasing financial and administrative demands associated with requirements from the local authorities, including market operator licences, public entertainment licences, park occupation charges, reinstatement bonds and extensive compliance documentation.
Organisers fully support appropriate public safety measures. However, there is growing concern that the current system lacks proportionality for volunteer-run community events organised for community benefit rather than commercial profit.
There are also concerns regarding inconsistent interpretation of licensing requirements, changing guidance and increasing unpaid workloads for volunteers.
Hyperscale data centres in our planning system would more than double Scotland’s current peak energy demand. Since they use energy 24/7 this will badly impact our climate targets as they cannot be powered by renewables alone and it is likely that they will require onsite gas generation if the grid cannot support them. They also require diesel or gas back-up generators which produce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. These hyperscale data centres are for AI Large Language Model training and inference, and are orders of magnitude bigger than our existing data centres which provide the computing and data storage infrastructure of the modern economy. (Scotland had between 10MW-30MW of co-location data centres in 2024).
We are calling for a pause on hyperscale data centres until the government carries out a thorough assessment of their impacts and puts them on Schedule 1 of the EIA Regulations.
Business Improvement Districts in Scotland operate under the Planning etc. (Scotland) Act 2006, along with the Business Improvement Districts (Scotland) Regulations 2007 (SSI 2007/202) and the Business Improvement Districts (Ballot Arrangements) (Scotland) Regulations 2007 (SSI 2007/261).
Evidence shows that BID guidance to local authorities has not prevented BID proposers (often private companies) from accessing information on who has voted during the ballot. This is a matter of concern because it takes more than just a majority to win a ballot but also an aggregate of non-domestic rateable values that is higher than for those voting against.
If a ballot is secret, in the traditional meaning of local authority ballots, this would ensure that results were a robust reflection of eligible non-domestic rate payers. If BIDs are to be truly democratic then the levied businesses should be entitled to expect the highest standards of secrecy in the holding of BID ballots.