St Andrews: Scotland Urged to Address Tinker Experiments
Research led by the University of St Andrews into 20th century policies affecting Gypsy/Traveller communities across Scotland – including the forced and permanent removal of children from their families – has found clear evidence of widespread institutional discrimination amounting to ‘cultural genocide’.
The report into the controversial ‘Tinker Experiments’ was commissioned by the Scottish Government in 2023 in response to a campaign led by Scottish Gypsy/Traveller activists calling for a formal apology to recognise the historic injustice.
Published today (Wednesday 25 June 2025) the 104-page document, compiled by the Third Generation Project at St Andrews’ School of International Relations, demonstrates that institutions across Scotland were complicit in the creation of an environment that allowed the Gypsy/Traveller community to be marginalised and persecuted to the extent that it should be considered cultural genocide.
The report also recommends that the Scottish Government should issue an apology to Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland and initiate reparations for survivors and victims of the ‘Tinker Housing Experiments’.
The Third Generation Project team, which also included researchers from the University of Aberdeen, the London School of Economics and McMaster University in Canada, analysed hundreds of documents and visited archival sites across Scotland in its quest to gather information on key events, key legislation and the role of institutions, as well as the extent to which policies employed as part of the ‘Tinker Experiments’ were implemented and when.
Historic injustices
The researchers, experienced in investigating similar historical injustices, found that between 1940 and the late 1980s and beyond, organisations including the Scottish Office, Church of Scotland, charities, and the police, were complicit in facilitating policies like forced assimilation, settlement and the removal of children including sending them abroad.”
In its conclusions, the report states that the evidence found shows three significant patterns; the dehumanisation of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland; systematic control including segregation and surveillance; and forced assimilation into wider settled society.
The report states: “The very nature of assimilation presumes cultural dominance of one group over another, and in the case of the ‘Tinker Experiments’ and the intent to erode the collective cultural identity of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland, there is a need to consider and to recognise that the context in which it occurred is best characterised as cultural genocide.”
Lead author and director of the Third Generation Project, Professor Ali Watson OBE said: “We ultimately found that the intentions of the Tinker Experiments (TE) were not to support the cultural ways of life of Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland. It was the exact opposite.”
The report notes how the TE included four key pieces of legislation that directly impacted the social, economic, and cultural welfare of Gypsy/Traveller communities in Scotland, creating a mandate for government and civil society to manage and intervene in the lives of Gypsy/Travellers.
Professor Watson explained: “For example, changes in legislation created the possibility that Gypsy/Traveller children could be taken from their families if they did not ‘settle’. We also found evidence that Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland were referred to as ‘a problem’ during debates in both Houses of Parliament.”
The report outlines that the Tinker Experiments were pervasive across Scotland, demonstrating that this was a national set of policies and actions.
“Overall, this research found evidence of at least one of three forms of forced and/or discriminatory housing policy used in 27 of the 32 present day council areas in Scotland,” she said.
Along with an official apology, the report makes recommendations for key stakeholders in the report, including the Scottish government, local councils, specific churches, the police, and media, to begin a journey of truth-seeking and reconciliation with Gypsy/Traveller communities.
“Moving forward, significant takeaways from this report must be not only to continue this inquiry, but also for Scotland to break the silence and begin addressing the legacies of the Tinker Experiments and their impact on Gypsy/Travellers in Scotland today.”
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Research
https://news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/st-andrews-report-says-scotland-must-break-silence-on-tinker-experiments/