Hansard

I join all those who have commended Rhoda Grant for bringing before Parliament this important legislation to tackle domestic abuse. She can be proud of her work not just on the bill but throughout her time in Parliament to highlight the need for concerted action to reduce the still unacceptably high levels of domestic abuse in Scotland. As the minister just said, in the past few weeks there has been a particular focus on levels of domestic abuse in the Glasgow area, but it is clear that, unfortunately, there is no quick fix to deal with this stubborn and serious problem in our society and that it will take a whole range of measures by our police and our justice system to reduce levels of offending. The fact that over the Christmas period there were nearly 3,000 incidents of domestic abuse in Strathclyde alone shows just how much more needs to be done to ensure that fewer women and children have to live in fear of abuse at home.

As I said, we need to do more, and the bill provides new protections and new remedies for victims of domestic abuse. I am glad that through the scrutiny of the Justice Committee, which has as always conducted its business with admirable efficiency, we now have a bill that commands support across the Parliament. Anxieties over the definition of domestic abuse were resolved at stage 2 and we have made progress in defining what a partner is in such circumstances. Although the committee did not support the bill’s original proposals for the provision of legal aid to domestic abuse victims, I am sure that we agree that the principle advanced by Rhoda Grant—that no victim of domestic abuse be excluded from taking action in the courts on the basis of financial capability—should, in practice, be met through our legal aid arrangements.

I welcome the fact that the bill’s two crucial elements on civil non-harassment orders and breach of interdict have won support. In the debate on the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Bill, we supported the Scottish Government’s proposals to remove for criminal non-harassment orders the requirement to show a

“course of conduct which amounts to harassment”,

as we believed that such a move would benefit the victims of such offences. Although we did not support the bill in the final vote, because of our concerns over the presumption against three-month custodial sentences—not least for perpetrators of domestic abuse—we nevertheless supported the Scottish Government’s measure on criminal non-harassment orders for the reasons that I have just outlined. The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill removes the same requirement for the granting of a non-harassment order in civil proceedings that involve domestic abuse. That, too, will benefit victims of abuse, who will not now have to suffer a series of offences before they can obtain such an order. Likewise, provisions that make it a criminal offence to breach an interdict with a power of arrest in domestic abuse cases also give further protection to victims and provide further penalties for offenders. Again, such moves should be very much welcomed.

To look forward, in tackling domestic abuse, the bill can, of course, be only one part of on-going work to ensure that we have in place a legal framework that does all that it can to help the victims of domestic abuse and prevent them from suffering further crimes against them in the future. I agree with the minister: the Scottish Government should always keep such matters under review to ensure that we are doing the best job that we can in serving the victims of domestic abuse. I believe that the bill is an important part of that work, and that today is a good day. We are seeking to redouble our efforts to tackle domestic abuse.

I congratulate Rhoda Grant again on all her work in bringing such an important bill before members.

15:40