Meeting of the Parliament 04 November 2025
Before I begin, I thank the Social Justice and Social Security Committee for securing the debate, all the clerks who put together the report, and all the organisations and individuals who provided evidence to the committee.
Evidence taken by the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, as well as by the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, of which I am a member, has made one thing clear: the current legal aid model for those who leave abusive relationships is simply not working and is in dire need of reform.
The state of legal aid in Scotland has been poor for a while. I clearly remember Marsha Scott from Scottish Women’s Aid telling the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee that she was raising the same issue that she had raised in 2017—nothing had changed. We often hear the term “legal aid deserts”, meaning geographical areas and areas of law in which there is a significant shortage of available practitioners. That is especially true in rural areas, where solicitors who are willing to take up legal aid cases are scarce.
The Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee heard examples of survivors of domestic abuse having to contact 30 to 60 solicitors. In one shocking case, 116 solicitors were asked to take up the case. We heard examples of individuals having to travel 150 miles to access a solicitor. Those are horrific real-life experiences, and let us not forget that behind every call is a real person desperately needing help to escape domestic abuse. The depletion of legal aid lawyers is so severe that it was even highlighted in the United Nations “Concluding observations on the eighth periodic report of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”.
The Scottish Government clearly needs to do better. The current legal aid system in Scotland does not account for situations in which survivors of domestic abuse do not have access to their own household funds. Financial and domestic abuse often go hand in hand with abusive partners having complete control of financial resources. Therefore, even though a survivor’s household income might be way higher than the legal aid threshold, she will have no access to those funds. In the committee, we heard of situations in which survivors had no idea what their household income was, as their abusive partner hid that information.
It is shocking that legal aid is not given to those who really need it most. It is little wonder that many survivors do not want to come forward when they do not trust the current system. Survivors of domestic abuse deserve better and should not pay the price for the Government’s delays and failure to support them.
In closing, I think that it is becoming increasingly clear that those fleeing abusive relationships do not have the support that they deserve. Helping the survivors of domestic abuse to get back on their feet is one thing, but we must also ensure that domestic abuse is eradicated. That is why my Prevention of Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill, which is currently at the committee stage, is so important. It has received the support of survivors and third sector organisations and I hope that the Scottish Government and members from all parties will also back it. It is incumbent on the Scottish Government not only to provide survivors with support but to ensure that domestic abuse does not happen in the first place.
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