Hansard

The Presiding Officer (Alex Fergusson) NPA

We move to the next item of business. While members are changing places, I inform them that they should have before them the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill a...

The Presiding Officer NPA

Amendment 1, in the name of Rhoda Grant, is in a group on its own.

Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab) Lab

Before I speak to amendment 1, I thank the minister and his civil servants for their help in lodging the amendments. It was very much appreciated and I hope ...

The Minister for Community Safety (Fergus Ewing) SNP

I express my gratitude for the way in which Rhoda Grant has approached the necessary amendments to the bill from stage 2. We appreciate that, and our officia...

The Presiding Officer NPA

Amendment 2, in the name of Rhoda Grant, is grouped with amendments 3 and 4.

Rhoda Grant Lab

Amendment 2 will amend section 3(1)(za), so that it refers to the determination being granted under the new section that will be inserted by amendment 4. The...

Bill Aitken (Glasgow) (Con) Con

There were always going to be definitional difficulties. There is no doubt that when we sat down to establish whether a route forward was ascertainable, it w...

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD) LD

I agree with much of what Bill Aitken said. It seems to me that proposed new subsection (2)(d) in particular has distinct difficulties. First, despite Rhoda ...

Fergus Ewing SNP

These are important amendments. Following stage 2, two main issues were outstanding: the labelling of interdicts and interdicts protecting a girlfriend or bo...

Robert Brown LD

Would the amendment, therefore, cover relationships between brother and sister or parent and child as well as the other categories that the committee was car...

Fergus Ewing SNP

That is not our intention in respect of amendment 4. We have framed the wording carefully to cover boyfriends and girlfriends.

Stewart Maxwell (West of Scotland) (SNP) SNP

The committee was concerned about the problem that could be associated with extending the definition to boyfriends and girlfriends, which Robert Brown has ju...

Fergus Ewing SNP

As I said, that is not our intention. As members will appreciate, the drafting has been framed carefully by the Scottish Government legal department, with ad...

Robert Brown LD

The minister said earlier that the wording covered not necessarily sexual relationships but perhaps emotional relationships. I am at somewhat of a loss to un...

Fergus Ewing SNP

We believe that it covers boyfriend and girlfriend situations. We accept that the wording that we have come up with covers a wide variety of relationships. U...

Rhoda Grant Lab

I concur with what the minister said. The only thing that I would add concerns what Robert Brown said about latitude in the amendment. We have not defined do...

The Presiding Officer NPA

That ends consideration of amendments.