Child sex abuse victims in Glasgow ‘failed’, says minister

Her comments came in response to criticism from opposition MSPs.

Alba’s Ash Regan, asking an urgent question in parliament, said the case “reeks of institutional failures”.

She said the children were “failed” despite being on the child protection register, being absent from school and showing “blatant” signs of neglect.

“The Scottish government has presided over this catastrophic failure at every single level,” Regan added.

She called for urgent action to address “serious safeguarding failures”.

Labour MSP Pauline McNeill questioned why the abuse was not detected earlier, adding: “Surely the minister is not satisfied simply to leave it to a case-led review to give us some answers to that key question.”

Conservative Douglas Ross said there was “nothing urgent” about the government’s response.

“We have an independent review that doesn’t have a chair, that we don’t know when they will report.”