Scotland approves free and universal access to pads and tampons

The Scottish Parliament unanimously approved universal free access to menstruation hygiene products on Tuesday, making it the first country in the world to do so.

The bill, introduced by Scottish Health and Sport spokesperson for Labor, Monica Lennon, under the name "Period Products (free supply)" introduces the legal right of free access to items such as tampons or pads.

Lennon's initiative, which soon won the support of the Scottish Nationalist Government, has achieved the unanimous backing of the Home Rule Parliament.

Until now, these products were already free for high school and university students, and the autonomous government had already allocated considerable funds to facilitate their distribution in other public places.

The approved text guarantees the universality of coverage, but above all legally obliges the Government to have ready, within two years, a scheme that makes the parliamentary mandate effective and practical.

It is left to the local authorities (21 districts across Scotland), who have an obligation to ensure that women's sanitary products are free and available to 'anyone who needs them' in public buildings.

The cost of the measure is estimated at about 11 million euros per year.

The Scottish Government will be the one to decide how to carry out the distribution, but preliminary drafts suggest that it could replicate the model currently used with condoms, the so

called

, for which the citizen is only obliged to provide minimum identity data, such as name, surname and date of birth, in order to claim the product with your card.

For rural areas, or even urban areas with a shortage of pharmaceutical or health establishments, the law contemplates the possibility of home delivery.

It would be up to the authorities to decide whether to charge for this service, depending on the greater or lesser accessibility that the user had to physical establishments.

The law, which always talks about women, girls or trans people, does not specify the exact amount of products that each user can receive, and leaves it up to the authorities to decide which one is necessary in each case.

Regarding its type, it is based on the fact that the most common requests will be for tampons or pads, but it also includes "other reusable products, with greater respect for the environment, such as menstrual cups".

Since 2011, across the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) a VAT of 5% has been applied to all menstrual products.

As of January 1, when Brexit is already a legal reality, the Government must decide whether to maintain any type of taxation on these products.

Scottish Chief Minister Nicola Sturgeon has shown on her Twitter account “proud to vote in favor of this groundbreaking legislation, which makes Scotland the first country in the world to offer free menstruation products to all who need it ”.

In this sense, it has described the legislative project as "an important policy for women and girls."

For his part, Lennon has considered that the new legislation is "practical and progressive", especially in the context of covid-19.

"Periods do not stop with pandemics and work to improve access to essential tampons, pads and reusable products has never been more important," Lennon stressed.