Hansard

Johann Lamont started by saying that it is not often she and I do short and sweet. I disagree. We do short and sweet all the time: she does the short, and I do the sweet. [Laughter.]

I endorse all the comments that have been made about Marlyn Glen. SNP members will miss her input, particularly in relation to equal opportunities issues. We appreciate and admire her contribution to the Equal Opportunities Committee and to issues around equal opportunities, human rights and women’s rights. We wish her all the best in whatever she decides to do next.

I endorse Anne McLaughlin’s comments about the late Bashir Ahmad. In this four-year session, the high point at the beginning was when he was elected as the first Muslim MSP; the low point was when he passed away so suddenly halfway through the session. The bill is as much a tribute to him, his philosophy and his thoughts as it is to anyone else.

Bashir would have been not just very proud of our passing the bill but proud and appreciative of the tremendous contribution that his successor Anne McLaughlin has made to the Parliament and, particularly, to the kind of issues that we are discussing this morning. She has been an able and fit successor to him.

As members from all sides of the chamber have said, forced marriage has no place in any civilised society. Today the Scottish Parliament is taking an important step towards eradicating this dreadful practice in Scotland. I thank members from all sides of the chamber for their excellent contributions to the debate. As I said in my opening speech, I have been encouraged by the support for the bill throughout the parliamentary process and throughout the country. It truly has been an example of the Parliament at its best, and it has been a pleasure to be the minister in charge of the bill.

Nearly every member who spoke raised the importance of awareness raising. A big part of the success of the bill’s implementation will be that people know about the legislation and the issues surrounding forced marriage. As a Government, we share the Parliament’s view that significant work is required to raise awareness and understanding of forced marriage in Scotland—especially, although not exclusively, among young people. We are committed to undertaking that work and have established a group of forced marriage network members to develop and take it forward as a matter of priority over the coming months. The group has already met and is due to meet again in early April. Members will also know from the bill’s financial memorandum that I have allocated resources to that work over the next three years.

I want to pick up on the point made by Hugh O’Donnell, Johann Lamont and Elaine Smith that it is important for the Parliament to engage in post-legislative scrutiny. As a Government we will take measures to monitor the effectiveness of the implementation of the legislation. That will be done 12 months on from the bill’s passage today. We have already put resources in place for that, and we will share all the information with the Parliament and with the relevant committee in particular. If we identify any issues that need to be taken forward to make the implementation of the legislation more robust and effective, we will be prepared to address them.

On the wider issue of representation, we have identified a budget of £90,000 over the next three years to support implementation. Half will be committed during this financial year to the development of practitioner guidance and the delivery of training. In subsequent years, resources will be committed to monitor and evaluate the success of the legislation, as I just said.

Although as everybody has said the bill concerns an issue that affects a relatively small number of people, it potentially has a huge impact on the lives of that small number of people. I believe that it also sends an important message to wider Scotland about the kind of country that we want Scotland to be: a Scotland where no one is at risk of abuse or is forced to do anything against their will and where everyone is free to participate in society and achieve to their fullest potential. A country that does nothing to tackle the evils of forced marriage fails on all those counts. Today we have taken the first important step towards ridding Scotland of that totally unacceptable practice. Importantly, we have made it clear that we are just as concerned about issues that impact on the few as we are about issues that impact on the many.

Earlier, we agreed amendments to the bill that will ensure that it is as clear and unequivocal as it can be. I thank individual members and the committee as a whole for their suggestions on amendments, which I think have strengthened the bill and made it much more lucid and therefore much more effective.

I apologise that I could not accept Elaine Smith’s amendment on nobile officium—a common term in Coatbridge—but as I said to the committee the advice that we received was that the equitable distribution provision in the bill incorporates the points validly and lucidly made by her and by the Law Society of Scotland about nobile officium. On the campaign trail, therefore, we can all discuss nobile officium knowing very well that we all know what it is, as does everyone out there.