Graphic showing a vicar preaching to a group of children

Government’s broken religious observance bill passes final vote and will become law, creating a state mandate for discrimination against non-religious children

February 17, 2026

Our Charity

We are extremely disappointed that the Scottish government’s broken religious observance bill has passed its final vote and will become law. The bill fails to give pupils at Scottish schools the right to opt themselves out of religious education, flying in the face of guidance from the UN, ECHR, and children’s rights charities.

In a blow for children’s rights and secular education policy, the Scottish government’s broken religious bill has passed its third and final vote at Holyrood by 66 votes to 51, with 7 abstentions. It will now receive royal assent and become Scottish law. We have been warning for over a year that this bill contains fundamental errors and is discriminatory towards non-religious and minority religious children. Yet MSPs have chosen to back it.

In a small piece of good news, an amendment was voted through which will allow ministers to create an opt-out right for pupils in future without creating new primary legislation. This creates a route for the Scottish government to enact the changes needed to bring its education policy in line with UN and ECHR guidance. They will be able to do this without carrying another bill through parliament.

Graphic showing a group of mixed-ethnicity, mixed-religion children looking uncomfortable in a classroom.

It won’t be long before a family with non-Christian children uses the courts to secure the rights the Scottish government has failed to offer them: freedom of religion and belief for their children.

However, this is a minor victory at best. The simple fact is that the bill passed today does not give pupils the right to opt themselves out of religious worship. In a specious “middle-ground” gesture, the government has, however, given children the right to opt into religious observance against their parents’ wishes. In fact, this layers discrimination on discrimination. It creates a hierarchy of belief systems in schools, with Christian children’s wishes treated more favourably than others’.

A recent supreme court ruling in Northern Ireland found that compulsory religious worship at non-denominational schools amounts to indoctrination. This ruling applies UK-wide, and its implications in Scotland are clear. It won’t be long before a family with non-Christian children uses the courts to secure the rights that the Scottish government has failed to offer them: freedom of religion and belief for their children.

The Scottish government has long held that pupils don’t need opt-out rights from religious observance because the type of observance offered in Scottish schools is “objective, critical, and pluralist”. Yet we’ve found evidence that directly contradicts this claim. Our recent analysis of FOI data from almost 300 Scottish schools found that over 70% of RO in 2025 was led by Christian preachers. Not only that, over half of all RO activities involved pupils participating in worship and prayer. Our 2025 report Preaching is not Teaching outlines specific examples of non-religious parents, carers, and children being exposed to Christian evangelising under the banner of religious observance.

Our Policy and Campaigns Officer Joe Higgins said:

“Today’s vote proves that John Swinney’s government is not on the side of children and young people. When challenged by the church establishment, his Ministers fell into line and maintained the right to force school pupils to take part in Christian worship.“

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