Headline snip. Picture of children praying with text reading "SNP teeing up for another unnecessary culture war with religious right"

National press coverage of Scottish government’s inadequate religious observance bill

March 11, 2025

The Herald and The National have reported on the Scottish government’s failure to propose opt-out rights from religious observance for school children in Scotland, with one writer talking of “an unnecessary culture war with the religious right.”

Two national newspapers have reported on criticism of the Scottish government’s new religious observance bill. An article in The National notes that Labour MSP Carol Mochan, the SNP’s Emma Roddick, and Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie have all questioned the bill in recent weeks. At the root of their concern is its failure to offer opt-out rights from religious observance for school pupils in Scotland. This move has been criticised by children’s charities, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, and several UN committees on children’s rights.

Meanwhile, an op-ed by Neil Mackay in The Herald states that the SNP are “teeing up another unnecessary culture war with the religious right.” “There’s a strange imbalance in Scottish society”, Mackay writes. “As a nation, we’re now predominantly secular: 51.1% said in the 2022 census that they had ‘no religion’. Yet churches hold power which far outweighs their place….When it comes to public discourse, that 51.1% deserves much more of a hearing, if democracy is to be equitable….This all accounts for the Scottish Government’s absurd contortions around the issue of giving teenagers the right to opt out of religious observance in schools.”

Last week, we reported on the questions raised in the chamber by Roddick, Mochan, and Harvey. Meanwhile, our CEO Fraser Sutherland gave an exclusive interview to The Scotsman querying the government’s commitment to children’s rights.

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