VIOLENCE against women and girls in Scotland must be treated as a public health crisis, a new coalition of rape crisis centres said today.

The Scottish Rape Crisis Alliance (SRCA) said cases of rape and attempted rape had “soared,” adding that there had been “no meaningful intervention to prevent these crimes.”

The group pledged to “disrupt the status quo and to work towards a world where no woman or girl anywhere feels the threat of male violence.”

Police Scotland figures for 2025 showed a 10 per cent rise in sexual crimes from the previous year, rising from 14,539 to 16,029.

Cases of rape and attempted rape increased by 12 per cent from 2024, the figures showed, from 2,785 to 3,118 — this total being 26 per cent higher than in 2021.

In the wake of the “terrifying” increase, the four rape crisis centres — Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis, Lanarkshire Rape Crisis Centre, the Star Centre, Rape Crisis Ayrshire, and Western Isles Rape Crisis Centre — announced that they had split from Rape Crisis Scotland and formed the new alliance.

The SRCA is now demanding that violence against women and girls “is treated as a public health crisis, with prevention, accountability and survivor-centred responses at its core.”

In an open letter to women and girls across Scotland, the founding members of the alliance said: “We promise to fight for our future and a Scotland where every woman and girl can grow up and live feeling safe, free and valued.”

Glasgow and Clyde Rape Crisis director Claudia Macdonald-Bruce said: “We must be honest with ourselves and especially with survivors. What we are doing as a country is not working.

“In fact, over time we have seen the slow and gradual erosion of the rights of women and girls to live in a society free of male violence.

“Rape and attempted rapes have soared, with no meaningful intervention to prevent these crimes.”

Ms Macdonald-Bruce said the next Scottish government “must fully acknowledge the scale of this crisis and respond with the urgency and leadership it demands.”

Helen Provan of Lanarkshire Rape Crisis Centre said the groups had acted to “take back control of the conversation and the action required to keep women and girls safe.”