Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 17 March 2021
This is the last speech that I shall make to the chamber, so I hope that the Presiding Officer will forgive me if I offer a few remarks not only on the bill that we are about to pass but on one or two broader matters.
The Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Bill is an important measure that adds to Scotland’s cutting-edge laws on domestic abuse. When, once again, violence against women is much in the news and our thoughts, it is timely.
I welcome the bill. The Justice Committee has been anxious to ensure that the provisions in the bill will be practical and of real use to those, especially in Police Scotland, who will have to make the new powers work. We have also been concerned to ensure that the provisions will operate compatibly with convention rights.
This is the third Government bill in quick succession that the Justice Committee has examined, following hard on the heels of the Defamation and Malicious Publication (Scotland) Bill and, of course, the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland (Bill). All three bills touch directly on our fundamental human rights; all three make significant changes to the law; and all three have found the Justice Committee working hard together, across the parties, to agree reports that, I hope, have improved the quality and effectiveness of the Parliament’s legislation.
I have been the convener of the Justice Committee for a short time only, but I have enjoyed it immensely. Despite, in the end, not being able to vote for all the legislation that we have examined, I am proud of the work that the committee has done while I have served as its convener.
Parliaments exist to do three things: represent the interests of our constituents in debates on matters of public importance, hold the Government to account and make legislation. I have been studying and writing about Parliaments all my adult life, I have been a member of this Parliament for five years and, before that, I was an adviser to the House of Lords for six years. It was in the House of Lords where I saw at first hand what parliamentarians could do to improve laws, even if they were not in sympathy with the political preferences of the Government of the day. I tried to apply those lessons to my practice as a parliamentarian here.
As I look back on the past five years, I remember the work that my colleagues and I did at the beginning of the session with Pauline McNeill and Alison Johnstone to make the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill stronger; the work that we did with Lewis Macdonald to make the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 stronger; and the work that Bruce Crawford and I did with the Finance and Constitution Committee on the common frameworks that the United Kingdom internal market needs now that we have left the European Union. Turning to more recent matters, I will long remember the work that I did with Liam McArthur, my good friend Liam Kerr and other members on the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Bill to make it, if not stronger, then a lot less dangerous than it would otherwise have been.
Child poverty, planning law, common frameworks and hate crime—that is a broad range of subjects, but there is one common thread: all were examples of cross-party working. Better together is the name of the campaign that first brought me into Scottish politics, and nothing that I have seen or heard in the past 10 years has made me change my mind about that. We are better when we work together, and we make better laws together.
When it comes to the other key function of Parliament, which is holding the Government effectively to account, I am afraid that the Scottish Parliament still leaves a great deal to be desired. It is not because we lack powers—it is more disturbing than that; it is because too many of us lack the will to use them.
However, today’s debate is not about holding the Government to account but about making law. The Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Bill is, I hope, good law. It will help to make women safer; it will help Police Scotland to tackle the scourge of domestic violence; it will be useful on the ground; and it will be compatible with the European convention on human rights. I am glad to have played a small role in making it. I commend it to the chamber and I look forward to voting for it at decision time.
17:58