Meeting of the Parliament 02 December 2025
I am glad to speak in this debate. Normally, these debates are consensual, and I am a bit concerned about how this one has been politicised by Tory speakers—I really am.
There is absolutely no doubt that toxic masculinity is on the increase. We all see it and we all know that it is damaging our communities, schools, workplaces and everyday life.
More than four years ago, during the 16 days of activism, we all stood here in a new session of Parliament and pledged to do more. In the time that we have left in this session, we all need to do so. This time next year, Parliament will again debate this subject and it must also pledge to do more.
This year, the focus is on online safety, and I will touch on that later. A few speakers have talked about the number of incidents of domestic abuse in 2023-24, which was 63,867. That is a scary figure. A clear majority of victims are female, and the vast majority of perpetrators are male.
Since 2018-19, Police Scotland has recorded 60,000 incidents of domestic abuse every year. That is 1,150 per week, 164 a day and seven every hour. In the time that we have been speaking in this debate, 20 women will have suffered domestic abuse. That is not acceptable.
We all know that domestic abuse is largely a hidden crime that goes unreported to the police. Scottish Women’s Aid believes the figures to be much higher, as not all incidents are reported to the police, which the report acknowledges.