Meeting of the Parliament 01 May 2018
I endorse and agree with Kezia Dugdale’s opening speech and the five points that she powerfully made. There are not many times that a sensitive, tricky, difficult but intensely robust issue is introduced in that way. The speech was very powerful and important.
I acknowledge the fact that the Solicitor General and the Lord Advocate are here. Kezia Dugdale was right about the Solicitor General’s track record on the matter. Parliament should not in any way ignore that, but I am sure that our law officers will want to reflect on, and consider carefully how to react to, what Parliament is saying, and the power of the argument that has been presented to us by many constituents and the organisations that have been named.
I entirely associate myself with John Finnie’s and Daniel Johnson’s remarks about being just members. John Finnie reflected on his previous professional life, but there are not many more harrowing things one experiences as a member of Parliament than meeting people who have been subjected—that is the word, at times—to the pressure of the process that victims are asked to go through. We cannot experience that and yet not believe that considerable change is needed. Kezia Dugdale set out five strong arguments for that.
I also associate myself with Lord Carloway’s observations from this morning. Some of the observations that he made were very powerful, particularly the point about the length of time that can be involved. A case that I have dealt with at home in Shetland concerns that point. Those of us who represent far-flung parts of the country recognise Rhoda Grant’s geographical observation about how far people have to travel and what that does. The issue in the case that I referred to was the length of time for which a person had to deal mentally, never mind physically, with the trauma and ordeals that she had been through. That makes me think that many of the proposals that Lord Carloway set out this morning are right, that they need to be implemented and that that should happen as a matter of urgency.
I am incredibly grateful to Shetland Rape Crisis and Shetland Women’s Aid for their candour in telling me in no uncertain terms things that I should be aware of as a legislator and as a representative. Shetland does not need to lose solicitors who have specialist rape and sexual assault abilities. That is one of the dangers that we face. The two organisations were clear about that. The firm that we might lose from Shetland is, to be frank, the only one providing legal-aid assistance to women who are in such circumstances, and we will lose it because of legal aid fees.
John Finnie was right about ministers. Michael Matheson was here earlier, for which I am grateful. However, I hope that the Government hears us loud and clear. There are no two ways about it: legal aid fees mean the difference between having a firm in Lerwick providing a service for women who have been subjected to rape or sexual assault and not having one. If we do not have one, the points that Rhoda Grant made about geography become even worse. I hope that the Government, if not the law officers, will reflect on that.
From the perspective of a different location in Scotland, Margaret Mitchell reflected on why the services of rape crisis organisations are so important. In 2017-18, Shetland Rape Crisis supported 52 survivors of sexual violence between the ages of 13 and 70, including a number of men and members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, along with women and girls.
Shetland Women’s Aid made two points to me. First, women do not have confidence in the system, so non-reporting needs to become reporting, investigation and prosecution. Secondly, the organisation asked me to think what the trauma would do to my body and brain. It told me that, naturally, the body wants to block it out, go away and disappear. For that reason, and many others, we need to do a whole lot more.
17:39