Meeting of the Parliament 15 September 2016
There is no doubt that everybody deserves protection from an abusive partner, and I welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to enacting and enforcing a law that aims to ensure physical and psychological security in the home.
The Scottish Conservative Party is sympathetic to the Government’s intention to create a new domestic abuse law, but is determined to be vigilant in looking for possible complications, which I will talk about later.
As Douglas Ross pointed out in his speech, we need to be inclusive of all victims of domestic abuse, and that includes victims from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community as well as male victims. It is estimated that as many as one in four LGBT people in Scotland may experience domestic abuse, and I specifically want to raise awareness of that today.
I am pleased that LGBT Youth Scotland has a specific LGBT domestic abuse project, which has identified that the issue is rarely spoken about in the community. Its website identifies LGBT-specific warning signs, which might include the threat of outing to family, friends and work colleagues and isolating the victim from the LGBT community by not allowing them to become integrated with the scene. I was concerned to see from research by the project that 79 per cent of young people believed that someone who had witnessed domestic abuse in their family or home would feel less confident about coming out as a result.
I welcome the fact that the motion covers ex-partners as well as current partners. In the modern world, where we are bound to social media at all hours of the day, we now see cases of abusive and threatening behaviour online even after a relationship has ended. That is why I congratulate Scottish Women’s Aid on its research and action on domestic abuse. Worryingly, the research highlights that a third of those who experience online domestic abuse from a partner or ex-partner experienced the use of global positioning system locators or spyware on their phones or computers, and that a third of those who experienced that abuse said that the threats were actually carried out. The charity subsequently produced information on how to identify such behaviour and how people can protect themselves online.
In my home town of Glasgow, the community has made great strides in contesting domestic violence and providing aid to victims. Other members have spoken about Women’s Aid, which has been supporting women and children who suffer from domestic abuse for 35 years. It provides a number of services to support victims including advice on housing issues and letters of support to housing associations. Last year, 12 per cent of the 4,000 housing applications in Glasgow were from people who had suffered domestic abuse or violence in the home. Women’s Aid also offers financial advice, which is very welcome when people are facing other difficulties.
I have also been pleased to see the work of Hemat Gryffe Women’s Aid—a charity based in Glasgow that was founded to provide for the specific needs of Asian, black and minority ethnic women who may experience domestic abuse that is influenced by culture and tradition, such as so-called honour-based abuse or forced marriage. The charity has been providing safe refuge accommodation in the city for more than 30 years and it assists women with emotional and practical support.
Organisations and charities in Glasgow are making a concerted effort to combat the effects of domestic abuse, but I also want to make a point about prevention. As Douglas Ross highlights in his amendment, the Scottish Government should continue to raise awareness of Clare’s law, which allows people to identify those who have been convicted of domestic abuse before they form a relationship.
It is also important to look more broadly at societal issues such as the mainstreaming of pornography and the ease with which it can be accessed online. Charities such as Women’s Aid have pointed out that the representation of women in the media can influence the way that young boys and girls think not only of themselves but of others and can create problems further down the line.
I return to the potential complications in implementing the proposed law. First, I highlight the issue of corroboration and the requirement for two pieces of evidence in criminal justice cases. I would like further discussion of that in the Parliament so that the law can achieve what it sets out to do.
Secondly, we need to provide more education on what we deem to be domestic abuse, particularly when it comes to identifying coercive and controlling behaviour—something that the Home Office raised before the introduction of the controlling or coercive behaviour offence in the UK Government’s legislation last December.
I welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment today to making domestic abuse a specific statutory offence and its broadening of what we deem to be domestic abuse to include coercive and controlling behaviour. As I mentioned, however, I would like further debate about how we can best implement such a law.
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