Consultation on free period product provision in Highland
The Highland Council has launched a public consultation to ask people’s views on where and how they would like to see free period products made available in the Highland area.
In 2021, Scotland became the first country to pass a law to make period products freely available and reasonably easily accessible to anyone who needs them. The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act aims to tackle period poverty, promote period dignity, and break the stigma surrounding periods in Scotland and places a responsibility on Councils to undertake this work.
Chair of The Highland Council’s Communities and Place Committee, Cllr Graham MacKenzie, said “This consultation will help the Council understand where people would like to see period products made available in Highland communities to make sure that our provision is based on local need and is made available in a dignified way. We are pleased to be working with our partners, including High Life Highland, to achieve this.”
The Council would like to hear from anyone who uses period products such as tampons, pads and reusable products, as well as those who may use them in the future, and those who collect them on behalf of others.
The consultation aims to find out where people would like those products to be made available; how people would like to obtain them; and the type of products that may be wanted.
The Council is working with partners to make free period products available in key Council public access buildings and High Life Highland premises, such as libraries and leisure centres, from mid-August 2022. The findings of the consultation will inform future locations and ways of provision and will also build on existing work where free period products have already been made available in Highland schools.
The community consultation will be open from 6 July 2022 to 3 August 2022 and you can access the survey at www.highland.gov.uk/freeperiodproducts.
For further information or to request a paper copy of the survey, please contact The Highland Council at period.products@highland.gov.uk.