The Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS) is a tax applied to the purchase of additional residential properties, introduced to discourage speculative buying and reduce pressure on housing supply. Its primary aim is to limit commercial investment that drives up house prices and restricts access for first-time buyers. ADS applies regardless of intent, meaning it also affects individuals purchasing homes for non-commercial reasons.
The impact of ADS has been significant. While it has helped curb some investment activity, it has also created unintended consequences for families buying property to support dependent relatives. These purchases are not for profit but to provide stable, suitable housing for vulnerable relatives. The tax can make this impossible, delaying housing solutions, forcing families into unsuitable housing, making essential purchases unaffordable, and increasing pressure on public services. A targeted waiver supports family care, independent living, and aligns the tax with its original purpose.
Support Retrofit Training for a Greener Scotland and Just Transition
- 105 Signatures
Scotland has committed to ambitious climate targets, requiring large-scale retrofitting of homes to ensure safe, effective installation of insulation, ventilation and low-carbon heating. These measures will also reduce fuel poverty and improve public health.
However, Scotland lacks one of the most fundamental ingredients for success: a large enough skilled, retrofit-ready workforce. A skilled workforce is central to safeguarding the public interest and delivering Scotland’s climate commitments.
A competent workforce is essential to protecting residents’ health, safety and wellbeing. Yet there is no dedicated government funding for retrofit-skills training, despite urgent and growing need.
This shortage risks poor-quality work, failure to meet national targets, harm to householders, and lost opportunities to rebuild trust in the industry and develop local community skills.
Introduce the Small Animal road signs in Scotland
- 810 Signatures
We are a hedgehog rescue service, and part of our mission is to raise awareness and help educate people on the hazards hedgehogs face. We want to help this vulnerable to extinction species as much as possible.
Hedgehogs are in the top 5 most commonly recorded roadkill species by the Citizen Science Project. 1 out of 3 will die on our roads.
We feel the wild animal signage (featuring the deer) should only cover larger animals and if you saw that sign you would not be looking out for small animals such as hedgehogs.
We held a poll and the overwhelming majority of people said that if they saw that sign they would think there was a danger of deer running out in front of them not hedgehogs!
We have had many orphaned hoglets into the rescue who have been found at the side of the road next to their deceased mothers.
Children with exceptional complex medical needs in Scotland receive intensive paediatric support including specialist teams, therapies, rapid hospital access and 24-hour clinical respite. However, when they reach adulthood these essential services are lost, not because their needs change, but because adult services aren't designed for individuals who remain medically and developmentally child-like for life. Families face crisis, unsafe care, and collapsing support. For young people in foster care the situation is worse: foster carers are told to either continue caring with no financial support or return the young person to institutional care. This denies stability, family life and equality.
Such young people lose vital paediatric support and family financial support when moved to adult institutional services that cannot meet their lifelong child-level needs. It is my view that Scotland must ensure continuity, safety, dignity and proper lifelong support for such young people.
Despite raising these concerns with the former Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and advisers, no meaningful action has been taken. A “stage not age” system is urgently needed to provide lifelong specialist care, therapies, proper respite and a lifelong foster care model. This petition is supported by many paediatric professionals.
Although the Scottish Government has produced guidance—most notably Respect for All—this guidance is not statutory and does not create a uniform, enforceable standard across all schools and local authorities.
The impact of bullying on young people can be significant and long-lasting. Many children experience anxiety, depression, trauma, sleep difficulties, and declining academic performance.
Children with additional support needs (ASN) are particularly vulnerable.
This highlights the need for a national framework that empowers schools and ensures accountability.
Sir William Wallace is Scotland’s national hero.
In 1296 he led the cause to secure Scotland’s sovereignty from England's overlordship and restore Scotland’s place in Europe.
In 1297 he secured a national and monumental victory with his co-Commander Andrew de Moray at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
In 1298 he was declared High Guardian of Scotland and protector of the realm.
Between 1299 and 1301 he spent time in mainland Europe fighting for Scotland’s sovereignty.
In 1305 he was betrayed and captured resulting in his judicial execution at Smithfield on 23rd August.
His impact on Scotland’s history thereafter has been huge, from Bannockburn to Prestonpans. In the 1800s a huge wave of monuments to Wallace were erected and in 1995 Hollywood dedicated a full film to his story.
Additionally, stats indicate tourist numbers could increase as a result of the declaration of a national Sir William Wallace day.
Evidence gathered between 2024 and 2025 from cases including that of Moray Council demonstrates a recurring national pattern where local authorities:
• Divert safeguarding disclosures into administrative or behavioural policy mechanisms (e.g., UCAP), contrary to ASPA 2007 section 4 duty to inquire.
• Misapply or ignore statutory duties under the Equality Act 2010 (sections 20-22, section 149) concerning reasonable adjustments and the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED).
• Fail to implement consistent safeguarding escalation pathways across Scotland, creating postcode disparities in adult protection.
• Lack clear external accountability when Equality or Safeguarding breaches occur, as neither the SPSO nor the Equality Advisory Support Service (EASS) have enforcement powers.
These issues are not isolated to one council but reflect structural gaps in national policy, particularly the lack of ministerial oversight or mandatory training standards for equality and safeguarding compliance across all 32 Scottish local authorities.
Improve access to local healthcare in rural communities
- Final Signatures: 69
I am a retired but well trained nurse in various disciplines. Sadly I witness a worrying decline in quality and accessibility of healthcare services, particularly in rural areas. Clinics have been downgraded, leaving the rural population with inferior care and without access to emergency care or face-to-face appointments. Patients are treated by short-term GPs, therefore lacking continuity, and are being treated with indifference. Patients now face long waits and travel to distant hospitals. Many are fragile or unable to drive. We are expected to accept phone consultations. This is an unsafe and impersonal approach that can increase the risk of misdiagnosis. Clerical staff began the process of triaging or often give different opinions. After hour care does not exist. Why? The Hippocratic oath no longer exists. Safety, wellbeing and confidentiality are abandoned! We ask that the Scottish Government urgently restore rural clinic services, address the need for after hour care, diagnose in a proper manner and bring back "caring".
There is no national record tracking outcomes. Women are placed on drugs for months or years — often more than once — without an evidence base on effectiveness, side effects or long-term impact to support informed decision-making. We deserve transparency, data and accountability in our care. Women’s health should not exist in silence or guesswork.
This petition is not anti-treatment — it is pro-evidence and pro-patient safety. We need a national database to ensure every person with endometriosis receives care guided by real outcomes, not assumptions.
I have personally been on these drugs for years, and I have never been shown any evidence of success rates, risks, or long-term impact. This would never be accepted in any other area of medicine.
It’s time to change that.
I’m calling for a mandatory national database to track real-world outcomes of endometriosis treatments and HRT. Women’s health deserves evidence, not silence.
I am petitioning to ensure vulnerable individuals who can’t afford or access legal representation are not deterred from seeking justice due to financial risks.
The current civil justice framework prevents many ordinary people from enforcing their rights. Under Simple Procedure, individuals can only bring claims worth up to £5,000, excluding many discrimination and human rights cases. Claims above this value must be raised under Ordinary Cause, a complex and costly process that usually requires legal representation. Additionally, some personal injury actions under £5000 must be raised using another procedure called summary cause. The systems in Scotland are too complex for an ordinary person to access. This contrasts with England and Wales whereby the small claims systems have higher thresholds (£10000) and any claim starts by filling in a form in the Court outlining your statement. This allows unrepresented parties to use the civil justice framework with ease and without the need for a Solicitor. Finally, the legal aid situation has not improved in Scotland.