The Scottish Parliament elections will be held on 7 May this year. We’ve gone through the manifestos of the main parties that are fielding candidates, and investigated what they are saying about key policy areas related to our work. Scotland has powers over a number of the policy areas of interest to Christian Concern.
Below is a basic analysis of what each has to say, along with links to each manifesto. We hope this guide will be useful for voters in Scotland, in working out which party you might vote for, and for engaging with candidates whether in hustings or meeting them more informally as they continue their campaigning up to polling day. We shall be monitoring how each party communicates about these policy areas up to and of course after the Scottish elections.
You can find the parties’ manifestos here: Reform UK, Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Family Party, Scottish Greens, Scottish Labour, Scottish Liberal Democrats, Scottish National Party
The beginning of life and abortion
The SNP is very conscious of pro-life activism in Scotland and is determined to oppose it. Its approach is unequivocal:
“We do not support the restriction of existing abortion legislation as abortion is a legal right, and we will protect that right. We will take forward a consultation on the recommendations of the Abortion Law review chaired by Prof Anna Glasier, including on decriminalisation within the specified term limits.”
The Liberal Democrats promise to “treat abortion as a healthcare issue, and give MSPs the opportunity to vote on decriminalisation.” The Scottish Greens agree; they want to decriminalise abortion, to end the need for two doctors’ signatures and to end the need for ‘people’ (note, not women) to give the reasons they want an abortion.
No established party is taking a pro-life stance or proposing to limit abortion in its manifesto. However, the Scottish Family Party is pro-life, opposes legal abortion in most cases and opposes buffer zones, explaining its position in detail.
Christian Concern has opposed buffer zones in Scotland and elsewhere.
The SNP, Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Greens each propose widening access to IVF. For example, this is what the SNP has to say:
“We will commission a rapid review of IVF provision in Scotland, with a particular focus on widening access to single women, same sex couples, and couples where one partner has children from a previous relationship.”
Whilst the Scottish Greens phrase this as a question of rights for LGBT+ families, the Scottish Conservatives don’t specify family forms.
End of life and palliative care
Whilst it does not mention assisted suicide, the SNP pledges to continue working with Suicide Prevention Scotland to deliver support to vulnerable people.
The SNP has a substantial section on palliative care, looking to expand the palliative care workforce and deliver a new Paediatric Palliative Care Suite. The SNP, the Scottish Conservatives and the Scottish Greens all want a new funding model for palliative care. The latter want an independent review of palliative care.
The Scottish Family Party takes a principled pro-life, not merely a pragmatic, stance in opposition to legalising assisted suicide, rightly warning that the term ‘assisted dying’ is misleading.
Christian Concern has consistently opposed the introduction of assisted suicide in Scotland.
Which parties respect the Supreme Court judgment on sex?
The Scottish Conservatives have targeted the SNP’s embrace of gender self-ID over the last five years:
“We would reverse the damage caused by the SNP’s policies and ensure the Supreme Court’s ruling that sex means biological sex is respected. That starts by ensuring women and girls have access to single-sex spaces throughout the public sector, including hospitals, schools and prisons. In particular, biological men must be removed from women’s prisons given the threat they pose to vulnerable female prisoners and prison officers.
There have been horrific reports from schools across Scotland of girls being abused in mixed-sex toilets in recent years, so single-sex toilets must be in place across our schools. But we also have to stop harmful ideas being taught to our children in the first place, which is why we would scrap the Scottish Government guidance which encourages the teaching of gender ideology in schools.”
The SNP manifesto is silent on its track record in this area!
Meanwhile both the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Greens want to reform gender recognition, i.e. support gender self-ID. The Greens word this cryptically as calling for the UK government to remove ‘its block on much-needed Gender Recognition legislation’.
The Scottish Family Party consistently opposes gender ideology including especially when aimed at children in schools and would seek to repeal the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
Christian Concern has opposed the SNP’s plan to introduce gender self-ID in Scotland.
Marriage
The Scottish Family Party supports marriage between one man and one woman and provides a comprehensive policy vision to this end.
Of the more established parties, the Scottish Conservatives say they encourage marriage.
“Upholding our values also means supporting couples who would like to get married and preventing the process from being abused. The Scottish Conservatives want to encourage people to get married so we would simplify and reduce the cost of the process which can vary substantially from one local authority to the next, and raise the minimum age of marriage to 18 to protect girls from potential abuse.”
However, they do not define marriage as being between one man and one woman.
They also pledge to ban first-cousin marriage, a sign that they have been watching the Westminster debate on this closely. They call it “a barbaric practice with negative health consequences that should have no place in our society.”
Tim Dieppe, the Head of Public Policy at Christian Concern, has made the case for such a ban.
Broad push for conversion practices ban
Given that the SNP is projected to win these Scottish elections, its support for a ‘conversion practices’ ban is of real concern. This is what they say:
“Should the UK government fail to bring forward legislation to ban conversion practices, we are committed to legislating against the harms of conversion practices and will introduce legislation within the first year of the new parliament to permanently end these practices. This will establish legal safeguards to protect people from the harm of conversion practices and ensure a response when such acts occur.
Beyond the necessary legislation to prohibit conversion practices, we will implement measures to support victims and survivors, including mental health services, and promoting education and awareness.”
This goes further than the Scottish Liberal Democrats, who promise to ban “all forms of conversion therapies and practices, working in partnership with the UK Government to achieve this.” Scottish Labour also supports a ban, wanting to work ‘to prevent possible loopholes across the UK’. The Scottish Greens single out religious, informal, family and therapeutic settings in their support for a ban:
“Introduce a comprehensive ban on conversion therapy covering all settings, such as religious, informal, community, family-based and therapeutic, with clear protections for affirming healthcare, and inclusive of trans, non-binary, and asexual identities. This ban will be backed by appropriate criminal and civil penalties, and a statutory right of survivors to support and advocacy.”
This is as totalitarian as it gets with conversion therapy bans.
Roger Kiska from the Christian Legal Centre has warned that the SNP’s proposed ban would be discriminatory. Last October, Christian Concern warned that the proposed Scottish ban would target Christian work and lacked an evidence base. Scottish church leaders signed an open letter opposing the plan.
Clash over Relationships, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP)
The SNP manifesto does not refer explicitly to RSHP in schools, but it does refer to ‘LGBTQ+ Inclusive Education’. Whilst this undoubtedly refers to RSHP, it may also hint at the intention to spread these ideas across the curriculum.
“We are committed to protecting and continuing the national approach to LGBTQI+ Inclusive Education across all primary and secondary schools, ensuring age-appropriate integration within the curriculum and continued national professional learning for teachers.”
The Liberal Democrats and the Greens also commit to continued LGBTQ+-inclusive education in schools.
The Scottish Conservatives propose involving parents in decisions on what should be included in the curriculum:
“The Scottish Conservatives would establish parent panels in every local authority that would allow parents to oversee the content children are taught on socially contentious issues such as sex education or other issues of personal morality.”
The Scottish Family Party comprehensively opposes LGBT indoctrination in schools, warning that even primary-age children have been turned into activists, and that pupils who disagree ‘have been subjected to humiliation, hostility and discrimination by teachers and schools’. It wants to end practices such as children changing gender ID without parents knowing, ‘Wear a Skirt Day’, LGBT clubs for children, requiring children to take part in Pride events, and drag performances in schools.
Christian Concern has warned that Scottish parents’ rights are undermined by the RSHP curriculum.
Proposal to repeal Scottish hate crime law
The Scottish Conservatives have much of interest on criminal justice.
“We would repeal Humza Yousaf’s Hate Crime Act that forces officers to spend time policing people’s speech rather than fighting real crime. Crimes motivated by prejudice would be punished via statutory aggravators instead. Another waste of police time is the recording of non-crime hate incidents. As the name suggests, these incidents can be recorded against an individual for simply posting a joke that some people found offensive. We would require that Police Scotland stop recording non-crime hate incidents.”
Reform UK says it would repeal the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act, calling it ‘intrusive’ and ‘ideological’. During the passage of the bill, Christian Concern explained that it was unnecessary. Roger Kiska explained that it would over-regulate free speech.
Grooming gangs inquiry for Scotland
In February 2026, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills Jenny Gilruth commissioned a statutory public inquiry into group-based child sexual abuse and exploitation in Scotland, chaired by Professor Alexis Jay. The terms of reference will be set by the Scottish Government, and there may be a public consultation. This is supported by Scottish Labour but unmentioned by the SNP in its own manifesto.
However, both the Scottish Conservatives and Reform UK also promise a grooming gangs inquiry for Scotland, stressing that it should be independent. The Conservatives say this will be “a truly independent inquiry into grooming gangs in Scotland, with victims and survivors having a role in overseeing it.” Neither party specifies whether this would be led by a judge, but it seems that they aren’t satisfied with the Scottish Government being responsible for the terms of reference. In parallel, the Conservatives promise a Victims’ Rights Charter.
Christian Concern has published the work of Dr Mark Durie showing that the grooming gangs are more associated with Islam than ethnicity. Christian Concern has also warned about the inquiry for England and Wales being led by three people very close to the governing UK Labour party.
The importance of political engagement
We hope this short guide has helped Christian Concern supporters identify how the Scottish elections touch upon some of our key policy areas. As always, parties may modify their policies once in power or change tactics in opposition.