New Children (Scotland) Act 1995 amendment restates that both parents are entitled to a view on decisions about their child.

Date: 26th September 2025
Category: Family support, Parental guidance, Parental responsibilities

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A new amendment to the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 is set to come into force later this month and it reinforces two major points: that both parents have a legal entitlement to be considered in major decisions about their child and that children have a legal right to express their views.

What’s changed?
While the original language from the 1995 Act already required those with parental rights or responsibilities to ‘have regard to the views of any other person … in relation to the child’, this amendment makes the duty more explicit.
The new law adds subsections (1A)-(1D) to Section 6, which do several things:

• Require the parents to give the child an opportunity to express their views in the way the child prefers, or in a manner appropriate if no preferred way is clear.
• Ensure that any views expressed are taken into account, with consideration given to the child’s age and maturity.
• Remove the earlier presumption that children under 12 are not mature enough; now there is no fixed age cutoff, so the ‘capability’ to form a view depends on the child.
• Maintain the legal obligation to consider the views of any other person who has parental rights or responsibilities.

Why this matters:
In practice, shared Parenting Scotland has heard many examples where one parent makes major changes like moving house or enrolling a child in a new school. Without informing the other, or without giving them a chance to express their views. Often these changes are only discovered after the fact, by which time the reversal is hard. 

 

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