Meeting of the Parliament 04 November 2025
I add my thanks to the committee and all the stakeholders who participated in the inquiry—particularly those who are victims of domestic violence.
I am pleased that there is cross-party consensus today that Scotland must do better by those who find themselves in these most difficult of circumstances. Today I am talking about women—for they are overwhelmingly women. In 2023-24, 81 per cent of domestic abuse incidents were between a female victim and a male suspected perpetrator. Women have been abused by those whom they trusted most in what should have been the safety of their own home.
It can be extremely difficult to leave an abusive relationship for a myriad of reasons, including the financial impact, the financial risk and the financial complexity of leaving. That is often exacerbated by abusive partners having total control over household finances.
I also give the committee credit for the timeliness of its inquiry—not least for my constituents in Dundee, where rates of domestic violence are the worst in Scotland. In 2023-24, Dundee had the highest incident rate of domestic abuse in Scotland, with 183 recorded incidents per 10,000 people. The Scottish average was 116. The rising levels of domestic abuse are of huge concern. They are fuelled by a culture of misogyny and conspiracy that proliferates online, particularly among young men.
In recent years, rape has had the lowest conviction rate of any type of crime in Scotland. In 2021-22, less than half of rape trials that made it to court resulted in a conviction, compared with an overall conviction rate of 88 per cent in the same year.
I strongly support freedom of expression, but groups have been platformed in my city in recent weeks that seek to deny that reality, and they cannot be allowed to go unchallenged. The risks are far too great. One reason is that, beyond the horrific harms to individuals, the connection between domestic violence and radicalisation means that violence against women is a key flag for possible future terrorist behaviours. This is militant misogyny as the root of intolerable evils.
I turn to the committee’s findings. It is fair to say that the success of the Scottish Government’s equally safe strategy has been mixed. During the inquiry, it emerged that many survivors are not even aware of that strategy’s existence. Many agencies and professionals are working hard to support survivors of domestic abuse but, as the committee found, it is essential that key stakeholders, including the Scottish Government, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and Social Security Scotland, work in a joined-up way and that services are effective and easy to access.
Issues were highlighted with the Scottish welfare fund, including difficulties in submitting applications, delays in funding coming through and budget constraints limiting the help that is available. Although some survivors had had good experiences with the fund, it is clear that more needs to be done to make the service more accessible and, crucially, more responsive in times of crisis and when an opportunity to leave presents itself.
The difficulties around the Scottish welfare fund show the hidden impact of more than a decade of cuts to local government funding. The general capacity of local government to deal with such issues has been reduced as staff leave and are not replaced and as councils are increasingly forced to concentrate on the delivery of statutory duties alone.
For there to be meaningful change, strategies and ministerial pronouncements must be matched by practical delivery on the ground. Too often, I fear, survivors of domestic abuse in Scotland have been let down by a gulf between policy intent and their lived experience. That has to change.
15:23