Tag: serious concerns

Scotland’s leading healthcare organisations raise serious concerns over Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill

Scotland’s leading healthcare organisations raise serious concerns over proposed changes to Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill

A group of six major medical and healthcare membership organisations in Scotland has issued a joint consensus statement warning of their significant concern regarding changes now being proposed to the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill.

The organisations – whose members span a wide range of clinical and ethical perspectives on assisted dying – emphasise that while they take no collective position on the principle of assisted dying, they are united in their concern that provisions relating to no duty to participate and conscientious objection may be removed from the Bill, and the impact that this could have on the workforce.

The Scottish Government has recently indicated that key provisions relating to ‘no duty to participate’, as well as other protections linked to professional regulation and employment rights are not within devolved powers and may be removed from the Bill at Stage 3. These issues would instead be addressed later through a Section 104 Order – secondary legislation that receives only limited parliamentary scrutiny.

The signatory organisations state that removing issues of such significance risk undermining both professional confidence and public trust.

The joint letter, sent today to Liam McArthur MSP, the Scottish Parliament Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, as well as the Secretary of State and Chair of the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee states:

“The prospect of removing matters of such professional, ethical, and legal significance from parliamentary scrutiny at Stage 3, and deferring them to secondary legislation after the Bill has passed, raises important questions about transparency, accountability, and the robustness of the legislative process.

“These protections are central to the safe, ethical, and fair delivery of care, and to the confidence of our medical workforce who may be affected by the legislation.”

The organisations highlight four core concerns:

1. Removal of key safeguards from primary legislation

2. Risk to professional confidence and public trust

3. Inadequate scrutiny of consequential provisions

4. Implications for safe and ethical implementation

The group of organisations in consensus express their continuing commitment to work constructively with the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament to ensure that any legislation affecting assisted dying is developed transparently, rigorously, and with full consideration of the healthcare workforce it will impact.

Signatory organisations:

  • Association for Palliative Medicine (Scotland)
  • Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland
  • Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland
  • Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
  • Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland
  • Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
  • Royal Pharmaceutical Society
Consensus statement – ADTIA (Scotland) Bill – FINALDownload

QAA review finds ‘systemic risks to quality and standards’ at University of Glasgow

‘THE FINDINGS ARE OF SERIOUS CONCERN’

The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) has published the report of its Targeted Peer Review of the University of Glasgow in response to a Concern raised to the Scottish Quality Concerns Scheme by the Scottish Funding Council.

The Concern was submitted on the basis of maintenance of academic standards and the potential for systemic failure in following the university’s assessment regulations.

Although the Concern was submitted after an internal investigation by the University following the death of a student, the review did not cover the individual circumstances of the tragic incident, but focused on the broader potential for systemic issues at the university.

The Concerns process identified that a Targeted Peer Review was the most appropriate course of action to address the issues identified.

The review process took place from 4 September to 13 November 2025. A two-day on-site visit took place from 28 to 29 October 2025 and included eight meetings with staff (senior, academic, and professional services) and students as well as a presentation delivered by the university. The University of Glasgow cooperated fully with the process.

The Targeted Peer Review was undertaken by a team of four reviewers, including a student reviewer, from across the UK tertiary education sector, and set out to answer 20 lines of enquiry across the topics of assessment regulations and award of credit, extension request processes, communication with students, mitigation of risk and institutional oversight, and student engagement in institutional change.

After thorough investigation, the Targeted Peer Review team has identified areas for development and weaknesses in the areas reviewed, which indicate systemic risks to academic standards and the quality of the student experience at the University of Glasgow. The report makes 21 recommendations for the University of Glasgow to address under the areas reviewed. A full list of recommendations can be found on pages 25-27 of the report.

The report makes two overarching recommendations. Firstly, the report recommends that the university is subject to additional institutional liaison meetings in academic years 2025-26 and 2026-27 to monitor and report regularly on progress against all the recommendations within the report.

Secondly, the report recommends that the university’s next regular external peer review takes place in academic year 2027-28, one year sooner than planned, and considers progress against all the recommendations contained within this report.

The University of Glasgow will be required to submit an action plan within four weeks that covers all recommendations and proposed implementation timelines, which will be agreed by QAA.

QAA has provided a copy of the Targeted Peer Review report to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service for its consideration within the Scottish Fatalities Investigation Unit’s enquiries.

The Scottish Funding Council has said that it will be working closely with QAA Scotland and the University of Glasgow to ensure that the recommendations outlined in this report are implemented as a matter of urgency. The SFC has also announced that, given the serious nature of these findings, it is commissioning QAA to conduct a national review of the assessment and associated policies and procedures across the sector.

Vicki Stott, QAA’s Chief Executive, said: “I am grateful to the Targeted Peer Review team for conducting such a thorough and robust review of the University of Glasgow.

“The findings are of serious concern. We are committed to working closely with the university and the Scottish Funding Council to ensure that the University of Glasgow implements the recommendations in this report in a timely manner so that academic standards are protected, and the quality of student experience at the university is safeguarded.

“We look forward to completing the wider work that the Scottish Funding Council has announced today related to these topics, with the Scottish sector.”