Access to justice for economic, social, cultural and environmental rights

In 2023, we commissioned Access to Justice for Everyone, a discussion paper from Professor Katie Boyle, Professor of Human Rights & Social Justice at the University of Strathclyde. The paper focuses on economic, social, cultural and environmental rights and highlights different barriers around access to justice for violating these rights. It also suggests a range of solutions to move towards an access to justice system that is fit for purpose.

Find out more:

Have five minutes? Read this article which explains why new human rights laws must have teeth if they’re going to work for everyone in Scotland.

Have longer? Read the discussion paper Access to Justice for Everyone: How might a new Human Rights legal framework improve access to justice in Scotland today? You can also read a summary of this report and an accessible Word version.

The first map covers services relating to:

• Education
• Housing
• Poverty
• Social security
• Benefits
• Health
• Mental health
• Disability
• Social care
• Care system

The second map covers services relating to:

• Civil justice
• Criminal justice
• Immigration / asylum
• Detention
• Equality / Discrimination
• Workers’ rights
• Biometrics, AI & privacy
• Freedom of expression

Find out more

Have five minutes? Read the factsheet, available as a PDF and in Word.

Have longer? Read the research report, available as a PDF.  Please let us know if you require this report in an alternative format.

Full report

Summary report

Easy Read

BSL

Research report on the complaints system

Access to justice is a cornerstone of the human rights legal system for everyone.   Prisoners are particularly vulnerable because responsibility for their safety, health and lives lies solely in the hands of the State, behind closed doors. The prison complaints system is therefore vital for the effective protection of human rights.

Prison complaints cover a variety of issues. They may be about a person’s access to food and property, or about their correspondence. The same complaints system would also deal with allegations of mistreatment by staff or complaints about living conditions.

Prisoners and their families are disproportionately represented among those approaching us to raise concerns relating to their human rights, often because they have exhausted other complaints mechanisms and are looking for any other assistance possible.

We have carried out research which looks at the journey to justice for prisoners who may have experienced human rights breaches, mapping a route through the prisoner complaints process and the barriers that they face when seeking justice. Our research report Access to Justice for Prisoners: The Complaints System was published in August 2025.

The report found serious deficiencies in the prison complaints system. We are not persuaded it is fit for purpose. From a human rights perspective this is highly concerning; without a robust and effective complaints system, a prisoner in Scotland experiencing a human rights violation is highly unlikely to be able to pursue justice.

The situation is worsened by a wider system that makes pursuing legal action practically out of reach for most prisoners. It is also extremely difficult for the prison service or scrutiny bodies to identify and act upon any serious or systemic issues which are putting human rights at risk.

The report recommends urgent review and reform of prison complaints system and suggests a number of practical suggestions for short and long-term improvements. The system cannot and should not continue unchanged.

We have shared our report with the Scottish Government, the Scottish Prison Service and other key stakeholders, including those who advise and advocate for prisoners and their families. We are committed to follow up work to ensure our concerns are acknowledged and acted upon.

We will also share our findings with relevant Committees of the Scottish Parliament, including the Criminal Justice Committee and the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee.

We will distribute this report among our own domestic and international human rights networks, including through our membership of the NPM and to bodies such as the CPT.

Finally, we will reflect our findings in our future international treaty monitoring and reporting work, for example in relation to the upcoming review of the UK’s compliance with Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Have 5 minutes? 

Read our Executive Summary - available as a PDF, an accessible Word document and an Easy Read - below. Or watch the report in BSL on our YouTube channel or on the BSL page of our website.

Have more time?

Read the full report below.  Available as a PDF and an accessible Word document.

Access to Justice for Prisoners

To access justice for potential human rights breaches, people must first understand what their rights and entitlements are, through readily available and accessible information. One issue that our report on the complaints system highlighted for us was a lack of accessible information about rights and the law in Scottish prisons.

In response to this concern, we collaborated with Parkhead Citizens Advice Bureau to develop “Your Rights Under the Scottish Prison Rules”, a guide for people in prison and their families. The guide explains what the law says about rights in prison and how prisoners can make a complaint if those rights are not being met.

The guide was created with the support of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) and is published on their website. We recommend that the Scottish Prison Service and Scottish Government ensure that this guide is made available to prisoners across Scotland, and their families. It should be translated into other languages and made available in accessible formats, including British Sign Language and Easy Read.

We’ll be releasing a report later this year which includes further detail on the challenges of making complaints about prisons, as well as recommendations on how the system could be improved.

Access to justice in community-based social care

This part of the project will focus on barriers to challenging Self Directed Support decisions, specifically when entitlements have been reduced without a reduction in need. We will publish a report on this in due course.

Additionally, through consultation with rights holders, civil society and key stakeholders during the development of our Strategic Plan 2024-28, we identified access to justice as an area which requires our continued focus. This theme, as well as our other top priorities, will inform future Spotlight Projects over this period.

These priorities are:

• Access to Justice
• The impact of poverty
• Places of Detention
• The rights of specially-protected groups