Children (Withdrawal from Religious Education and Amendment of UNCRC Compatibility Duty) (Scotland) Act 2026

Contents

Part 1 · Withdrawal of pupils from religious instruction or religious observance in schools

2Review of modifications made by section 1#

(1)The Scottish Ministers must—

(a)undertake a review of the operation of the provisions of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 which are modified by section 1, and

(b)prepare and publish a report on that review.

(2)The report prepared under subsection (1)(b) must be published no later than the end of the period of 3 years beginning with the day on which section 1(4) comes into force.

(3)The report must, in particular, contain—

(a)information about how religious observance has been delivered in schools during the period covered by the review,

(b)an assessment of the inclusiveness of the content and delivery of religious observance during that period.

(4)The report must include—

(a)a statement of any actions the Scottish Ministers intend to take following the report (including, in particular, actions to enable children to withdraw from religious observance), or

(b)where the Scottish Ministers do not intend to take any actions, their reasons for not taking actions.

(5)The Scottish Ministers must lay a copy of the report before the Scottish Parliament.

Part 3 · Final provisions

4Ancillary provision#

(1)The Scottish Ministers may by regulations make any incidental, supplementary, consequential, transitional, transitory or saving provision they consider appropriate for the purposes of, in connection with, or for giving full effect to this Act.

(2)Regulations under this section may—

(a)modify any enactment (including this Act),

(b)make different provision for different purposes.

(3)Regulations under this section—

(a)which add to, replace or omit any part of the text of an Act are subject to the affirmative procedure, but

(b)otherwise, are subject to the negative procedure.

5Commencement#

(1)This section and sections 4 and 6 come into force on the day after Royal Assent.

(2)Sections 1 and 3 come into force on such day as the Scottish Ministers may by regulations appoint.

(3)Regulations under subsection (2) may—

(a)include transitional, transitory or saving provision,

(b)make different provision for different purposes.

6Short title#

The short title of this Act is the Children (Withdrawal from Religious Education and Amendment of UNCRC Compatibility Duty) (Scotland) Act 2026.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.