Hansard

My thanks go to all the people who have brought us to this point. As colleagues have said, they are many in number, and their contributions have all been very helpful in shaping the bill, which the Scottish Green Party will support at decision time tonight.

One of the early contributions was a briefing from the Scottish Parliament information centre. It contained a section headed “The story so far”, which outlined the changes that had taken place over a period of time. It is an evolving story, and those changes have hopefully been playing their part in addressing what Neil Bibby referred to as “the power imbalance”. We have a way to go but, in chipping away at it, we are making some progress.

I recall the scrutiny of the bill that became the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018. Members of the Justice Committee took harrowing testimony from people about the circumstances in which they had found themselves, which obviously cannot be discussed in detail, but it demolished much of the stereotyping associated with the vile scourge of domestic violence. It involved controlling and coercive behaviour.

The legislation is rightly viewed as unfinished business. There is a gap in the requirements of the Istanbul convention, which has been signed, but not yet ratified, by the UK Government. Scottish Women’s Aid told us that the convention is

“probably the ... best piece of violence against women policy that has ever been written, anywhere.”

It is for that reason that I had some disquiet in not going along—for once—with Scottish Women’s Aid on the issue of consent. We had an interesting debate about that and about the obligations that have been put in place. My concerns were primarily predicated on controlling and coercive behaviour, which is a pernicious, nuanced abuse, invariably of women.

Police Scotland now has the new powers, which it described as

“providing an exceptional tool for use in exceptional circumstances”,

although they

“should not constitute the routine response.”—[Official Report, Justice Committee, 22 December 2020; c 24.]

I hope that that is the case in many respects. I have a number of concerns about circumstances in which the suspect—that is what they would be—is absent from the scene. The suspect may have been arrested, but there might be insufficient evidence. We heard about issues around what would actually happen with the administration of the domestic abuse notice. I am very grateful for the engagement that Scottish Women’s Aid and the Cabinet Secretary for Justice had on tightening up the parameters around that.

Going ahead, there is an important role for the implementation group in understanding the particular challenges that will arise with legislation that must apply equally to Shetland as it does to Stirling, and in understanding the implications and challenges that come with giving police an extraordinary power to deny someone their residence. That is a power that would normally be reserved to court, and it is a power on which the court will pass comment on the next lawful day. That in itself presents a big challenge.

In the limited time that I have left, I will mention the issue of police and judicial training, which is absolutely vital. It is still the case, sadly, that some inappropriate comments are made from the bench. When it comes to understanding the consequences of men’s violence against women, particularly the perniciousness of controlling and coercive behaviour, we are not quite there yet.

I commend White Ribbon Scotland, which engages with men in speaking out on and taking action against men’s violence against women and girls. This is undoubtedly very much gender-based violence, but it affects everyone, and it remains a blight on our communities.

Everyone should feel safe in their home, and I hope that the bill will go some way in providing some reassurance to women on that.