National Focus

Stories from Scotland

Michael Marra Elected Scottish Labour Leader

Michael Marra, regional MSP for the North East, was elected the new leader of Scottish Labour, replacing Anas Sarwar. The leadership election follows Sarwar’s decision to resign as leader of the party to sit in the House of Lords. 

Results of the election were announced on Saturday 19 September. Only members of the Scottish Labour Party were permitted to vote, and turnout was just short of 50%, an increase from the same election in 2021, which stood at 42%.

Marra received 4,266 votes from members of the Labour Party in comparison to his closest competitor Joe Fagan’s 2,485.

Marra hails from Dundee, where he has served as a regional MSP since 2021. He comes from a self-described “trade unionist family” and is said to represent the ‘soft left’ faction of the Scottish Labour Party.

As Scottish Labour received its worst-ever Scottish election result in May 2026, Marra’s new role comes with a plethora of challenges.

First Minister Reaffirms Support for Decriminalising Drugs

Scotland has retained its title as the drug death capital of Europe, with related deaths increasing 11% from 2024 to 2025. This marks Scotland’s eighth consecutive year as the nation with the highest drug-related deaths.

Scotland’s drug-death rate of 227 deaths per million is more than double that of Estonia, the nation with the second-highest rate at 112 deaths per million.

Policies to tackle this issue have remained at the centre of consecutive Scottish National Party governments, with the first calls to decriminalise drugs for personalised use being introduced in 2024 under former First Minister Humza Yousaf.

However, the UK government presently reserves the right to control drug policy. This renders the policies proposed by the Scottish Parliament impossible to achieve without assent from Westminster.

Whilst Starmer resoundingly rejected calls for any form of drug decriminalisation, Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s policy remains unclear.

New Forensic Nurses to Help Victims of Sexual Assault

A new policy has been introduced in Scotland that permits specially-trained forensic nurses to examine victims of rape and sexual assault. Previously, only doctors were permitted to conduct these examinations.

This step was hailed as a “significant milestone” by Public Health Minister Maree Todd.

This practice has been permitted in England since 2001 but only became legal in Scotland in March of this year. 

The new policy will be especially impactful in remote and rural areas, where there are often shortages of relevant doctors. Some local health boards have to turn to private doctors to fill these gaps.

Nicola Love, External Affairs Manager of Rape Crisis Scotland, highlights that this policy will redress the geographic imbalance of care. Speaking to the BBC, Love said this practice will stop “service [being] really good in one area and completely lacking in another.”

Advocates of this policy also underline that it will reduce delays in seeking help when dealing with sexual offences.

Nurses will be able to attain the specific qualification needed to become a specialist forensic nurse through Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, with training funded by the Scottish government.

Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons