Report on Human rights, equalities and access to services in rural areas of Scotland

The Committee reiterates its “sincere disappointment” that a Human Rights bill was not introduced during the session. 1 Letter to the Minister for Equalities. (2025, December 17). Retrieved from https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/equalities-human-rights-and-civil-justice-committee/correspondence/2025/human-rights-bill-for-scotland-17-december-2025.pdf We note the Minister’s letter of 13 January 2026 which confirms that the Scottish Government remains “committed to introducing the Bill in the next Parliamentary session.” In order to facilitate thorough scrutiny, and bearing in mind the work that has already been done during the current session, the Committee would like to see such a bill laid at the earliest opportunity.

The Committee welcomes the work being undertaken within the Scottish Government to ensure a more strategic approach to interconnected issues spanning multiple policy areas. However, the Committee is concerned that evidence from local stakeholders suggests that this work has yet to result in concrete improvements “on the ground”. It appears that siloed working within different Scottish Government departments remains an issue which prevents the full realisation of rights in many rural areas as considered later in this report.

The Committee notes that the Minister’s role in encouraging her colleagues to fully consider and mainstream issues relating to the realisation of human rights in rural areas appears to have largely been undertaken on an informal and ad hoc basis. We therefore recommend that the next administration puts in place more concrete arrangements to ensure that this is done on a strategic and structured basis in future.

The Committee is acutely aware of the higher than average cost of living in rural communities or the “rural premium”. It also recognises the complex and interconnected nature of contributory factors and that it is unrealistic to expect them to be resolved overnight. However, we agree that more needs to be done and invite the Scottish Government to respond to suggestions from the Scottish Poverty Alliance that targeted measures on energy costs, transport, housing, and service provision are required.

The Committee recognises the challenges in providing public transport services, particularly for smaller, more isolated communities where revenue from fares is less likely to cover costs. This also applies to commercial operators who are unlikely to operate unprofitable routes without public subsidy.

However, the Committee is clear that adequate transport is essential to the full realisation of ESC rights in rural communities and strongly recommends that the Scottish Government sets out the actions it is currently taking to support the viability of such services and any additional steps it intends to take in the future.

The Committee recognises the invaluable contribution that community-led organisations often make towards helping sustain rural communities and maintaining access to services through initiatives such as community transport. The Committee also notes that such services can be more cost-effective than public sector alternatives in some localities although they cannot replace them entirely. However, the Committee is clear that such initiatives cannot be sustained or upscaled without adequate, long-term and sustainable funding and support. It is not acceptable for essential services in rural areas to be dependent on the goodwill of volunteers alone.

The Committee strongly agrees that communities are best placed to identify local need, prioritise accordingly and come up with their own solutions. Such solutions should then be explored and put in place, wherever possible, through a coproduction approach with public sector partners. It is therefore essential that community-led organisations and other third sector groups have “a seat at the table” right from the start of the policy development process so that their voices can be heard and listened to.

The Committee is aware that the subject of multi-year funding for third sector organisations has been raised repeatedly by committees throughout this and previous sessions. The Committee therefore strongly welcomes the Fairer Funding pilot and agrees with the Minister that it is an “important first step”. We recommend that this pilot should be built upon and expanded as soon as possible.

Whilst the Committee recognises that it will not be possible to guarantee secure, multi-year funding for all third sector organisations under existing fiscal arrangements, it invites the Scottish Government to confirm the timescales under which the pilot is operating and to update the Committee on its impact and lessons learned at an appropriate point. The Scottish Government is therefore invited to confirm when such an analysis will be made available.

The Committee also welcomes the further initiatives listed by the Minister which it hopes will help further embed a local approach and bring parity of esteem to third sector partners. We recommend that our successor committee continues to monitor progress towards this end in the next parliamentary session.

The Committee recognises the interconnected nature of multiple challenges in rural areas which can act as barriers to employment which, in turn, can lead to increased poverty levels, thus creating a “vicious circle”. Whilst they will vary depending on local circumstances, they may include access to adequate transport links, digital connections, childcare services, healthcare, housing, training and employment opportunities themselves.

Whilst the Committee also recognises that these challenges will not be resolved overnight, we heard examples of initiatives and proposals that appear to be working well or have the potential to do so, including:
The multi-agency Uist and Barra childcare forum;
Suggested “hyper-local” initiatives for enterprise, employment and skills development;
The potential for investing in local digital hubs;
Suggestions that local and national government departments dealing with rural and island issues should be located in the communities they support to a greater degree than is currently the case.

The Committee is clear that there is an urgent need for initiatives that have been proven to work well in communities to be learned from. We therefore invite the Scottish Government to reflect upon and respond to these suggestions and confirm whether they have the potential to be rolled out more broadly and under what timescales. We further invite the Scottish Government to provide detail of any other innovative approaches it may be considering that have been demonstrated to work for local communities.

The Committee recognises the complexity of the social security system. Ideally, the Committee would like the system to be made easier to navigate but we recognise that the Scottish Government only has responsibility for certain parts of it.

The Committee welcomes the continued Scottish Government funding for independent advocacy services to help people most in need to navigate the system. However, we note the comments of stakeholders which suggest that such services are at risk when provided locally due to budget cuts and invite the Scottish Government to respond to these concerns.

The Committee is conscious that the national housing emergency has been a key priority for the Parliament throughout the current session and that other committees such as the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee have considered the subject in detail. Whilst we have been unable to consider challenges relating to the availability and affordability of housing in rural areas to the same extent in the time available for this inquiry, it is clear that this remains a significant challenge which impacts on several aspects of the sustainability of rural communities and requires urgent action.

We therefore invite the Scottish Government to provide an update on its current position and any next steps in respect of the following suggestions and challenges as raised by stakeholders:
The need for investment in small-scale builders, infrastructure and training to help make construction in rural communities more viable;
What more can be done to encourage housing to be constructed in communities which are most in need and to ensure adequate transport and infrastructure links where necessary;
The need to enable greater flexibility in the planning system;
The need to encourage large landowners to make land available for house construction where alternative options are limited or do not exist;
The impact of large numbers of short-term lets and people from elsewhere buying up properties in rural communities, particularly on Scotland’s islands.

The Committee recognises that it is unrealistic to expect all rural communities, particularly those in more isolated areas, to have immediate access to the full range of health services on their doorsteps. However, the Committee is concerned that some essential health services such as those relating to maternity appear to be being further centralised in regions such as the Highlands. This may lead to situations where expectant mothers are being compelled to undergo procedures which may not be clinically necessary in order to “choose” where and when to give birth rather than having the choice of a natural birth closer to home. We are also concerned that mothers (and their babies) who opt not to travel to major population centres to access maternity services may be placed at greater risk in the event of complications arising in midwife-led maternity units such as in Caithness, and would urge the Scottish Government to provide innovative solutions whereby consultants can be called upon when this happens, rather than moving a woman in labour to another hospital. The Committee calls for urgent action to address this. Moreover, the Committee queries whether the Scottish Government’s expectation that such services “are delivered as close to home as possible” is being realised in practice although we recognise that decisions on the most appropriate place to treat patients should always be based on clinical evidence.

In respect of local GP services, the Committee notes that the situation appears to vary, with some rural stakeholders reporting that they have better access to GPs than may be the case in urban areas. Whilst it appears that the number of GP practices in rural communities is reducing, the Committee notes comments from stakeholders that this provides an opportunity for innovation. The Committee invites the Scottish Government to confirm what actions it is taking to encourage greater innovation in the delivery of frontline GP services in rural communities.

In respect of the need for a preventive approach to reduce the risk of costly acute interventions at a later date, the Committee is mindful that the Parliament and its committees have repeatedly called for such a decisive shift, dating back at least as far as the publication of the Christie Commission’s report on the delivery of essential services in 2011. The Committee recognises the challenges in moving towards such an approach, not least in terms of its costs and the need for disinvestment in other services, but is clear that such a shift would result in longer-term savings thereby freeing up resource for much needed investment in other priorities. We are disappointed that the pace of change has been slow and recommend that greater emphasis is placed on the urgent need for prevention.

In respect of long waiting times for procedures such as cataract operations or hip and knee replacements, the Committee agrees that it is not acceptable for patients in rural communities to have to wait longer than their urban counterparts and that any such variances should be addressed as a matter of urgency. We therefore invite the Scottish Government to provide statistical data on any disparities on waiting times between urban and rural health boards and to outline the immediate and longer-term actions it is taking to address them where necessary.

The Committee strongly values the services provided by third sector organisations in delivering advice and assistance to rural residents. This is particularly important for services supporting people when they are most vulnerable, including victims of domestic and/or sexual abuse.

The Committee recognises the essential contribution that such services make, not just through advice and counselling, but also in collating the data needed to inform policy decisions. The Committee is clear that third sector organisations cannot be expected to provide these essential services without stable, long-term and sufficient funding, particularly given the need to build trust with service users. We invite the Scottish Government to respond to the concerns raised by stakeholders in this context and strongly recommend that further investment is made available to support the continued provision of such services on a sustainable basis going forward.

The Committee also invites the Scottish Government to respond to conflicting concerns relating to the collation of localised data. The SHRC, for example, suggested that such data was “kept atomised” meaning national trends may not be identified. Conversely, Scottish Rural Action told us that data from rural areas is often absorbed into national data meaning it frequently “gets lost.”

In respect of civil legal aid, the Committee has considered this topic in detail through its inquiry on civil legal assistance. It notes the steps the Scottish Government has taken to widen access to legal aid more broadly, including through recent secondary legislation, but notes that these instruments did not give effect to the recommendations contained in the Committee’s recent report on civil legal assistance. We look forward to receiving an update on proposed next steps following an analysis of responses to the Scottish Government’s discussion paper.

However, the Committee is clear that it is not acceptable for residents of rural areas to face such limited options in accessing advice and assistance as is the case in the Highlands. Our recent Report on our inquiry into Civil Legal Assistance in Scotland found that “there is an urgent need for action to improve the delivery of the civil legal assistance and in turn improve access to justice.”. We therefore disagree with the Minister’s suggestion that the legal aid system is “generally effective in delivering help to those who need it”, particularly those living in remote and rural communities and reiterate our conclusions around the urgent need for reform as set out in our report.

This inquiry has highlighted the significant and often deep‑rooted inequalities experienced by people living in rural and island communities across Scotland. Whilst rural areas contribute enormously to Scotland’s social, cultural and economic life, it is clear that many residents do not currently enjoy the same level of access to services, infrastructure and opportunities that are more readily available elsewhere. The evidence received consistently pointed to a pattern of structural disadvantage spanning transport, digital connectivity, social security, employment, health, housing and access to justice, which undermines the full realisation of economic, social and cultural rights.

Stakeholders emphasised that rural communities often face persistent systemic challenges, some of which stem from national policy frameworks that do not fully account for rural realities. The “rural premium” provides a striking example of this disparity. Without targeted action, pressures will continue to fall most heavily on those already at risk of poverty or exclusion.

It is also clear that depopulation poses a significant threat to the sustainability of rural communities on multiple levels. For example, it can lead to closures of schools, medical facilities and other essential services where local demographics no longer provide sufficient demand for them. This in turn makes them less viable as a place to raise families thus contributing to a “vicious circle” of further depopulation.

The Committee welcomes the Scottish Government’s acknowledgement of these issues and its commitment to improving rights realisation in rural areas. Initiatives such as the Fairer Funding pilot, investment in digital infrastructure, and targeted housing and employability schemes are welcome. However, the discrepancy between policy ambition and lived experience remains. Many rural residents continue to face barriers to essential services, including healthcare, childcare, specialist support, legal advice and public transport. The Committee is clear that progress to date has not sufficiently translated into meaningful and measurable improvements “on the ground.”

Throughout the inquiry, stakeholders stressed the importance of genuine partnership working, early and sustained engagement, and long-term investment in community-led organisations. These groups are often best placed to understand local need and design effective solutions, yet their work can be constrained by short-term or precarious funding. The Committee strongly believes that a shift toward multiyear, secure funding models is essential to unlocking the potential of these organisations and the communities they serve.

Rural housing shortages continue to undermine workforce recruitment, drive depopulation, and restrict the ability of younger generations to remain in their communities. Similarly, the increasing centralisation of healthcare services, long travel distances, and gaps in emergency and maternity provision mean that rural residents can face barriers in accessing timely and appropriate care.

Overall, the Committee considers that a more coherent, ambitious and flexible approach is needed to recognise the distinct needs of different rural and island areas, embed a rural and island lens across all stages of policymaking, and prioritise the realisation of human rights for all. We would expect a future Scottish Human Rights Bill to contribute to the realisation of this.

Rural communities deserve equitable access to services, opportunities and rights. Delivering this is not only a matter of fairness, but essential to the wellbeing, sustainability and long-term prosperity of rural Scotland.