Meeting of the Parliament 04 November 2025 [Draft]
I refer colleagues to my entry in the register of members’ interests. Prior to my election, I worked for a rape crisis centre. I apologise—I should have said that earlier.
I begin my closing speech by thanking the Social Justice and Social Security Committee members, clerks and, most importantly, the women of the survivor reference group, whose experiences and insights make the report so powerful. Their testimony leaves us in no doubt. Financial barriers are among the most effective tools that abusers use to trap and punish. Too often, those barriers are reinforced, not dismantled, by our public systems.
The committee found that women might have to contact 11 different services before finding the support that they need, or 17 if they are from a minority ethnic background. Imagine the exhaustion and retraumatisation of retelling your story to strangers again and again, simply to survive. The report calls for trauma-informed training across all agencies. It should be mandatory. Every interaction, whether it be with a housing officer, benefits adviser or solicitor, can either empower a survivor to take the next step or drive them back into danger.
The Scottish Greens have long argued that homelessness and abuse are inseparable issues. The report highlights that 5,000 people become homeless each year because of domestic abuse and many of them lose their homes while the perpetrators remain in place. That is why I am proud that Ross Greer’s amendment to the Housing (Scotland) Bill means that the Scottish Government is now required to review council tax arrears when domestic abuse is a factor. No woman should be chased for debts that were created through her abuse. No one should lose a home for trying to survive.
The committee’s findings on public debt also make clear how the state can perpetuate economic abuse, from council tax collection to housing arrears. We must end the shaming of survivors through punitive debt recovery.
On legal aid, as we have heard clearly this afternoon, the committee’s evidence was damning. Scarcity, bureaucracy and inadequate funding mean that survivors face impossible choices. Legal aid cannot be a postcode lottery or a privilege for the well-resourced—it is a human right. The Scottish Government’s commitment to reform is welcome, but reform must mean universal trauma-informed access, not further review and delay.
The evidence on social security is just as stark. There are delays in the Scottish welfare fund, a five-week wait for universal credit that drives women into debt before they even leave and split payments that are still undelivered after eight years.
This is a moral test for our Parliament. We cannot claim to stand against gender-based violence while tolerating systems that tie survivors to their abusers through poverty and bureaucracy. Financial independence is safety. Economic justice is freedom. Real justice means building a society in which no woman has to weigh her safety against her solvency.
I look forward to the day when no one in Scotland is trapped in an abusive home for financial reasons and when our legal, social security and housing systems are not barriers but bridges to freedom and dignity. That day cannot come soon enough.
15:33