Ishan Crawford Dominique Haig graduated from Queen Margaret University (QMU) in Edinburgh on 6 July with an MSc in Sexual and Reproductive Health, and with a finding already shaping national policy. Her dissertation shows that reusable pads, cups and period pants, guaranteed free under a 2021 Scottish law, often sit locked out of easy reach on campuses across the country.
Five years after Scotland became the first country in the world to make period products a legal entitlement, Haig’s research, developed into policy briefs and published in the journal Women’s Reproductive Health, finds that legal access has not guaranteed real choice for the students who need it. Reusable products still make up a small share of what Scottish institutions actually hand out.
Hidden Behind Reception Desks
Haig’s dissertation set out to understand why uptake of reusable menstrual products remains low despite the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 encouraging their distribution. She reviewed how colleges, universities and public bodies stock and distribute what the law requires, and spoke with the people meant to benefit.
The pattern she found was consistent. Reusable products exist on paper. They are far harder to find in practice.
We found that while reusable products are technically available across colleges, universities and public organisations, they’re often out of sight.
Haig, a graduate of QMU’s Institute for Global Health and Development, described how gatekeeping shapes access day to day. Reusable items are sometimes kept behind reception counters or limited to student union offices, paired with poor signposting and thin menstrual education. Students who may be most vulnerable to period poverty often do not know a free reusable option exists at all.
Scotland’s World-First Law, Five Years In
The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 received royal assent on 12 January 2021, after a campaign led by Monica Lennon, a Scottish Labour MSP, that won support from every party in the Scottish Parliament. It began as a member’s bill rather than government legislation, a route that let Lennon build cross-party backing from the start.
The law requires schools, colleges and universities to stock a range of free period products in their toilets. It also tasks the Scottish Government with running a nationwide scheme so that any resident who needs period products, whether or not they are studying, can get them through their local authority.
The Act’s own definition of a period product explicitly lists reusable articles alongside tampons and sanitary towels, so the choice Haig wants institutions to offer was written into the statute from the outset. Monica Lennon, described period products as a basic necessity tied to dignity when the bill was introduced. Estimates at the time put the scheme’s running cost at £8.7 million a year, a figure that helped make Scotland’s approach a reference point for other governments.
Period Poverty, By the Numbers
Free provision has not erased the problem the Act was built to solve. A 2025 briefing from PolicyWISE, a policy research network spanning the UK and Ireland, found that two in five girls in England have used toilet paper in place of proper sanitary products. Coordinated data collection across the UK and Ireland remains patchy. Scotland is the only nation among them with comprehensive statistics on period poverty, while Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland lack consistent, comparable figures.
- 24% of women and people who menstruate in Scotland told researchers they struggle to afford period products, rising to 35% among those aged 15 to 24.
- 2 million girls aged 14 to 21 across the UK have missed school because of their period.
- 25% of schoolgirls in Wales, roughly one in four, have experienced period poverty.
Those numbers sit behind Haig’s central point. A law can put products on a shelf without making sure the right products, in the right place, actually reach the people looking for them.
Where Implementation Breaks Down
A policy brief published through IRISE, a menstrual health organisation, sets out four recurring failures behind the pattern Haig documented.
Four Recurring Failures
| Barrier Type | What the Research Found |
|---|---|
| Restrictive distribution | Reusable products stored behind reception desks or limited to student union offices |
| Missing student voice | Students rarely consulted on which products are bought or how they are handed out |
| Weak monitoring | No consistent reporting on spending, uptake or student experience across institutions |
| Infrastructure gaps | Limited private washing and changing space makes reusable products harder to use day to day |
What Haig Wants Changed
“We are therefore calling for improved menstrual education and teacher training; inclusive procurement processes that reflect student preferences; better infrastructure to support reusable product use; and clearer signposting and more accessible distribution methods,” Haig said.
Translated into practice, her four asks point institutions toward specific changes.
- Train staff so reception and facilities teams stop treating reusable products as items to guard rather than hand out.
- Consult students before procurement decisions are made, not after products sit unused on a shelf.
- Fund washing and changing space, the practical infrastructure reusable products actually require.
- Publish uptake data so it becomes possible to tell whether policy commitments are translating into practice.
Scotland’s own equality impact assessment for the Act flagged part of this risk early. Guidance for local authorities named added barriers facing disabled people, homeless people, Gypsy and Traveller communities, and domestic abuse survivors, and recommended consulting those groups directly. Haig’s findings suggest that consultation has not consistently happened.
From Edinburgh to Emergency Settings Worldwide
Haig is not stopping at Scottish policy. She is currently completing a placement with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), contributing to a thematic group focused on substance use in emergency settings, an area she has called important but under-researched within global health.
Maria Bertone, a Reader in the Institute for Global Health and Development at QMU, said Haig’s dissertation “demonstrates the power of research to address real-world challenges and contribute to meaningful policy discussions.”
Bertone added that Haig’s “commitment to improving menstrual health equity and her ability to translate academic research into practical recommendations exemplify the values of the Institute for Global Health and Development.”
Two Honours, One Stage at Usher Hall
Haig graduated alongside a QMU alumna whose own path from an Edinburgh classroom to a global stage traces the same institute’s reach. Human rights activist Fatou Baldeh MBE received an honorary doctorate at the same 6 July ceremony, in recognition of campaigning work to end female genital mutilation and protect women and girls from violence and discrimination.
Baldeh completed her own master’s degree in sexual and reproductive health at QMU in 2013, then worked at Edinburgh’s Dignity Alert Research Forum before her evidence to the Scottish Parliament in 2014 helped shape national safeguarding practice. She was named one of TIME Magazine’s Women of the Year in 2025 for that campaigning work.
Scotland’s 2026 graduation season has carried other stories of new beginnings this summer, including one Ukrainian war refugee graduating in Scotland and calling it home. Haig’s own next chapter runs through Geneva and refugee settings rather than Holyrood committee rooms. The dissertation stays behind, already shaping how a small but growing number of Scottish institutions restock their shelves.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Scotland’s Period Products Act actually guarantee?
The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 requires schools, colleges and universities to stock free period products in their toilets, and requires the Scottish Government to run a nationwide scheme so that any resident who needs period products can get them through their local authority.
Are reusable products legally included in the free provision scheme?
Yes. The Act’s own definition of a period product lists reusable articles alongside tampons and sanitary towels, so colleges and universities are legally required to include reusable options in what they stock, alongside single-use items.
What counts as a reusable period product?
Menstrual cups, reusable cloth pads and period underwear are the main reusable options covered by Scotland’s law, all designed to be washed and used repeatedly rather than thrown away after a single use.
Have other parts of the UK followed Scotland’s lead on free period products?
Northern Ireland passed its own Period Products (Free Provision) Act in 2022, extending similar protections. England and Wales rely on narrower school-based schemes rather than a universal legal right.
Why do institutions still favour single-use products despite the law?
Haig’s research points to procurement habits built around familiar disposable suppliers, thin staff training on menstrual health, and a lack of monitoring that would otherwise flag low reusable uptake and prompt institutions to change their ordering.
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