The Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee is seeking views on a Bill which will establish a Commissioner for Older People in Scotland.
Those views will inform the Committee’s scrutiny.
About this call for views
The Commissioner for Older People (Scotland) Bill was introduced by Colin Smyth MSP on 2 April 2025.
According to its accompanying Policy Memorandum the purpose of the Bill is to “establish a Commissioner for Older People, whose primary purpose will be to promote and safeguard the rights and interests of people aged 60 and over in Scotland.” The Commissioner would be independent from Government.
The Commissioner’s role would be to “act as a champion for older people at a national level.” His or her roles would include reviewing law, policy and practice relating to the rights and interests of older people “with a view to assessing their adequacy and effectiveness and promote best practice by service providers.” Additionally, the Commissioner would “promote, commission, undertake and publish research on matters relating to the rights and interests of older people and promote the skills and experience of older people.”
The Commissioner would also have powers to “undertake investigations into devolved matters if they consider that the issue relates to older people. These investigations will seek to encourage the consideration of the rights, views, and interests of older people in the decision-making and actions of service providers.”
In Colin Smyth’s view, the Commissioner “would give older people, who are often marginalised, a voice and would seek to ensure that their long-term needs and challenges are fully considered in policy and practice across all government departments and public bodies.”
Who we would like to hear from
We welcome responses from a wide range of individuals and organisations, including:
- older people
- carers
- public bodies
- the third sector
- professional bodies and associations
- any other stakeholders with an interest in the proposal to establish a commissioner for older people
How to contribute
Please answer the call for views by completing the submission form below.
You don’t have to answer all the questions. If you would prefer to send in a statement which does not cover any of the questions, please get in touch with the Committee at ehrcj.committee@parliament.scot.
Confidentiality and publication of responses
Please let us know if you wish your response to remain confidential. You can also ask for your submission to be anonymised.
We aim to publish all the submissions we receive. The only exceptions are where submissions are made on a “confidential” or “not for publication” basis.
If we receive a very high volume of submissions, we may not have the resources to process and publish them all.
Submit your views
Please submit your views using the online submission form, linked to below.
We welcome written views in English, Gaelic, Scots or any other language.
You can also give your views to the Committee in a BSL video. If you send a video, we will arrange for a translation and pay for this. You can send a video through a file transfer service such as WeTransfer, or upload to YouTube and share it as a private link with us by email.
