About Victim Support Scotland#
Victim Support Scotland has been a registered charity since 1985 and became a Scottish charitable incorporated organisation in 2019. Its entry with the Scottish Charity Regulator describes a national charity with regional teams that gives trauma-informed, individual and local support to victims and witnesses of crime, whether or not the crime has been reported to the police, and that works with justice agencies and on national policy. The regulator records 113 staff and between 101 and 250 volunteers.
When we checked the charity's website in October 2026, it offered support in the community and at court, a directory of local services, and an exit button on its pages. On 26 October 2026 every page of victimsupport.scot answered our checks with a browser security screen, so this page is shorter than others in the directory and gives only what we could verify from the register and that earlier check. Visit the site for its current services, opening hours and contact routes. Victim Support in England and Wales sends people in Scotland to it.
Reaching it safely#
Use a device that nobody else checks, and use the exit button if you need to leave the site quickly. If you are in danger right now, call 999. For sexual violence, Rape Crisis Scotland runs a national helpline.
Changing your name in Scotland#
Victim Support Scotland's pages, as far as we saw, say nothing about names. Scotland has its own options, and the difference between them matters if someone may be looking for you:
- A record with National Records of Scotland is open to people born or adopted in Scotland. Citizens Advice Scotland warns that this puts the change on a register the public can see.
- A statutory declaration or a deed poll is a document you keep and show to organisations; making one does not put your new name on any register.
Our guide for Scotland lays the routes out, and our Citizens Advice Scotland page sets out what its guide says. If your address needs protecting as well, GOV.UK's anonymous registration form covers Scotland, with evidence such as a protective court order or an attestation from a senior police officer.
This page describes Victim Support Scotland from its entry on the Scottish Charity Regulator's register, read on 26 October 2026, and its website as checked on 22 October 2026. Victim Support Scotland has not reviewed it, and listing a charity here does not mean it recommends this handbook or any deed poll service.
