Hansard

On behalf of the Scottish Government, I am delighted to open this debate and to have an opportunity to reaffirm the Government’s unreserved commitment to tackling violence against women. I cannot say strongly enough that violence against women has absolutely no place in our society.

I welcome the interest and support for the agenda among the members who are in the chamber and beyond. We might not always agree on every detail, but our desire and passion to see an end to violence against women in Scotland has united the Parliament since its earliest days. I sincerely hope that that continues to be the case.

Sadly, there is still much work to be done to eradicate violence against women in our society and beyond. Violence continues to be perpetrated against women and girls across the globe on a daily and unrelenting basis. In Scotland, women and girls continue to be the victims of domestic abuse, rape, sexual assault and other forms of violence such as commercial sexual exploitation and female genital mutilation. Also, the ways in which violence is being perpetrated are evolving. Social media such as Snapchat, Twitter, Skype and Facebook provide lots of different ways for us to communicate with one another but, regrettably, some people use those tools in a different way: to humiliate and exploit others. One example of that is revenge porn, which we debated earlier this year.

I know that there is a lot of interest in the Parliament on the issue of female genital mutilation, some of which was expressed during the human rights debate a week ago. As a form of violence against women and girls, female genital mutilation will be included in Scotland’s strategy to tackle violence against women. The strategy will be the first of its kind in Scotland, reflect the spectrum of violence that is defined as violence against women and be published in the summer of next year following consultation in the new year. I will return to the subject in my closing remarks.

There is much work to do to achieve the vision of Scotland that we all want, but there is also much to be proud of. I pay tribute to the hard-working organisations on the front line that work day in, day out to help women and children who are affected by the scourge of domestic violence. Many other aspects of the situation are also worth referring to.

In its first year, Police Scotland has shown a great deal of commitment to, and leadership on, the violence against women agenda. It has made tackling domestic abuse and tackling rape two of its top three priorities. A new national rape task force, which works closely with specialist rape investigation units in each of the 14 divisions within Police Scotland, has been established.

Rape is now being taken as seriously as murder. Every rape investigation will be led by a detective inspector or someone above that rank, who will lead a team of people who have the same skill sets as those used in homicide investigations. Rapes committed after 1 April 2013, when the new single service was established, and which remain unsolved will be subject to cold-case reviews in the same way that murders already are.

The Scottish Government already proposes to remove the requirement for corroboration in criminal cases via the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill. That move, which is supported by Scottish Women’s Aid, Rape Crisis Scotland and Victim Support Scotland, recognises the fact that corroboration can make the prosecution of sexual offences, which often take place in secrecy and without witnesses, particularly difficult. Removing the requirement for corroboration will enable compelling cases to proceed based on the best evidence, putting the focus squarely on the quality of evidence rather than its quantity.

The prevalence of domestic abuse in our society remains acute. More than 60,000 incidents of domestic abuse were recorded in 2012-13, an increase of 0.5 per cent on the previous year. It is likely that that increase reflects to some extent greater reporting of domestic abuse to the police and the confidence that those who experience abuse have in the response of the police and other partners. That is to be welcomed, but the Scottish Government is clear that 60,080 incidents of domestic abuse is 60,080 too many.

That is why the Government has increased funding to tackle violence against women, including domestic abuse, by 62 per cent since 2007, allocating £34.5 million for the 2012 to 2015 period. We recognise that, despite that, there are always pressures on budgets, particularly due to higher costs across many organisations. Nevertheless, compared to the funding support elsewhere, funding has increased and enabled much work to take place in our communities.

We have also strengthened the criminal law in recent years, introducing a new offence criminalising the breach of an interdict with the power of arrest where domestic abuse is involved. The Victims and Witnesses (Scotland) Bill, which was introduced on 6 February this year, will improve the support that is available to victims and witnesses through the justice system, putting victims’ interests at the heart of continuing improvements.

To ensure that the Scottish Government fulfils its international obligations on violence against women, we propose to criminalise forced marriage. Everyone in Scotland who is eligible to marry or enter into a civil partnership has a right to do so freely. We have a proud record of tackling all forms of violence against women, including forced marriage. The legislation that was introduced in the Forced Marriage etc (Protection and Jurisdiction) (Scotland) Act 2011 was a clear statement of our intention to work towards its eradication. Our decision to criminalise forced marriage will ensure that Scotland is compliant with article 37 of the Istanbul convention and demonstrate that the country will not fail to meet its obligations to protect those who are at risk.

I am pleased to tell members that we have taken the decision to reshape our traditional model for consultation to encourage as many people and organisations as possible to engage and get involved in the consultation for the new violence against women strategy. We will invite and support stakeholders that deliver front-line services to host on our behalf discussion groups about the strategy with service users. Those groups will enable us to ensure that the strategy is built on service users’ views and meets their needs.

We will set up a series of workshops with key stakeholders, including Police Scotland, Education Scotland, the Scottish Trades Union Congress and voluntary sector partners, which will take place in February next year. The main focus of those sessions will be on discussing how best to strengthen those organisations’ commitments to tackling violence against women, which will be set out in the strategy.

From the new year onwards, we will widely circulate externally an outline structure of the strategy, which will be accompanied by consultation questions. That will ensure that all who are not directly involved in the discussion groups and meetings and who feel that they have something to contribute to the consultation have a mechanism to do so.

In Scotland, we have much to be proud of. We have been creative and we have truly embraced a multi-agency response to tackling violence against women. As the minister who is responsible for equality, I am immensely proud of what we have achieved in Scotland across Administrations that go back to the Parliament’s establishment. We have the opportunity to build on those successes and we must never be complacent.

That is why I have written to Professor Rashida Manjoo, the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women, to invite her to visit Scotland during her official mission to the United Kingdom in April next year. She will visit the UK to examine UK laws, policies and practices that relate to violence against women, and I want her to hear about and see some of the fantastic things that are happening here in Scotland.

As I said at the outset, the Parliament has always engaged a great deal on the issue. We have been united in our condemnation of such violence, which we all agree does not accord with the vision of Scotland that we want. I very much look forward to further discussion with members in today’s debate and beyond, as the development of the strategy progresses. I welcome members’ input on the strategy.

I move,

That the Parliament reaffirms its commitment to ending violence against women; welcomes the development of Scotland’s Strategy to Tackle Violence against Women, the first of its kind in Scotland; notes that the strategy will encompass the spectrum of violence defined as gender-based violence, and commends the valuable contribution that voluntary and third sector organisations have made to the shaping of Scotland’s approach to violence against women

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