Meeting of the Parliament 01 February 2018
I thank all members for their positive contributions in the course of this stage 3 debate and during the passage of the bill.
The Scottish Parliament is not short of disagreements—that is the nature of debate—but I think that it is right to pause and highlight the fact that this place is often at its best when we can come together and try to tackle some of the most significant problems that we face as a society.
We cannot afford to underestimate the nature and the extent of the problem that we face in relation to domestic abuse. I mentioned in my opening remarks that nearly 60,000 cases of domestic abuse were reported to Police Scotland in the space of one year, and that there is an unknown number of other incidents that are not reported.
I believe that it is incumbent on us all, as elected members of the national Parliament of Scotland, to address what is, in my view, one of the key gender-based challenges that we face as a society. Despite concerted efforts over many years, the scourge of domestic abuse is still a blight on the lives of too many people. As we seek to redouble our efforts in order to tackle this issue more effectively, the bill will help us in moving that agenda forward.
As I mentioned earlier, scrutiny of this bill is occurring at a time when I sincerely hope that fundamental changes are taking place in relation to how women are treated in our society. We recognise that there is much more to do, but we are moving in the right direction.
This bill is timely for many reasons, but perhaps first and foremost as an example of the steps that are needed if we are to have a shift in mindset to support the wider changes in our society that we all want to see. The bill makes it clear that domestic abuse is not simply physical abuse and that the pernicious and horrific coercive controlling behaviour that degrades and humiliates women in particular is now within our criminal law’s scope.
Members have raised specific points during their speeches. I recognise Kezia Dugdale’s point about raising awareness of the new provisions and I have taken specific action to make sure that those people who engage with the victims of domestic abuse will have a proper and detailed understanding of the new provisions if the bill is passed this afternoon. That will help to ensure that police officers and staff in Police Scotland understand the new provisions in the legislation. I have provided additional funding to allow 14,000 police officers and staff to be trained to understand the new bill. Maurice Corry also raised that issue. Alongside that, an extra £165,000 will be provided to Scottish Women’s Aid to support its training programme to help staff who work in its projects across Scotland. I have no doubt that it will help to support them to make sure that they create awareness of the bill’s provisions.