Hansard

As is traditional, I thank all members for their excellent contributions, but it was remiss of me at the start not to also thank our committee’s clerking team, particularly Halla Edwards-Muthu, and the Scottish Parliament information centre, particularly Camilla Kidner, for their excellent work. We are lucky to have such professionals in the Parliament supporting us with our committee reports—I want to put that on the record.

I also want to put on the record something that did not come up in the debate and which I did not mention in my opening speech, which is the issue of inconsistent responses by police officers to allegations of financial abuse and coercive control. That key issue was raised by some members of the survivor reference group. The committee welcomes Police Scotland’s commitment to develop training for officers on identifying and understanding economic abuse and consider opportunities to collaborate with the financially included project, which has raised concerns. I put that on record on the basis that, if victims/survivors have told us that that is an issue, they should hear that said in the Parliament this afternoon.

Marie McNair reinforced the calls that I made in my opening speech for the Scottish Government to take a lead in working together with the UK Government, the DWP, Social Security Scotland, COSLA and other partners to share best practice. I hope that the Scottish Government will drive that forward, irrespective of political differences. There is no political difference when it comes to supporting women who are fleeing violence or economic abuse, and so I hope that such working together will happen.

We also heard a lot about financial barriers; the five-week wait for universal credit is clearly one such barrier.

A theme that has shone right through the debate, and which we heard about in the minister’s closing comments, is the further actions that are required on legal support. I welcome the minister’s comments, but Karen Adam was right to talk about legal assistance deserts. More has to be done, and the committee is right to be frustrated. Pam Gosal and Maggie Chapman spoke about the search for lawyers. Some women, particularly in more remote or rural areas, have had to call up to 50 lawyers to get someone to take on their case. There is sometimes not an equality of arms for women when they seek legal representation, so the Government has to go further on that.

There is always a need for clear information, awareness and support. That is another theme that shone through the debate. I thank Alexander Stewart for saying that having a single point of contact in local authorities would aid in this endeavour, as was recommended by the committee. Carol Mochan spoke about low levels of awareness of equally safe among victims/survivors and the need to have support available in a physical form, perhaps in education settings and elsewhere. That point was reinforced by Beatrice Wishart, and it is important to put it on the record.

I thank members who stressed that economic abuse is not simply a consequence of domestic abuse but a thing in and of itself. Maggie Chapman said that it was a specific instrument of control, and Jackie Dunbar, in a very impassioned and personal speech, for which I thank her, said that it was part of a systematic pattern of abuse. She shared a story from one of her constituents, and Paul McLennan chimed in on that point. Awareness has to grow more generally of what economic abuse and control actually is.

During the debate, we had an inadvertent and accidental demonstration that there is good cross-Government working taking place on economic abuse. Paul McLennan mentioned his involvement in developing the new fund to leave during his time as Minister for Housing. Kaukab Stewart has been pushing forward on that as the equalities minister, so there is clearly joined-up working taking place. More of that would be nice, but it is happening, so that is good to put on the record. Kaukab Stewart also said that 1,800 more women are expected to benefit from the new fund to leave, which is a hugely positive thing.

There was a discussion about whether the Scottish Government is delivering enough. It is always the Parliament’s job to push the Scottish Government to go further. Frankly, whether we are SNP back benchers, committee conveners or members of the Opposition, we should all absolutely do that.

Equally safe is supposed to be the delivery strategy. Therefore, I expect the Scottish Government to think carefully about the recommendations from both committees and about how to ensure that the strategy will not just be warm words—I am sure that it will not be—but will have tangible, deliverable actions, with budgets beside them, to deliver many of the outcomes in the reports, which we have mentioned in the debate. There is much more to be done on that.

We heard that there is much more to be done in relation to the benefits system—not just by the UK Government on universal credit but by the Scottish Government and COSLA and local authorities more generally.

There is much more to be done in relation to public sector debt—that point shone right through the entire debate. There is good work happening in relation to the Housing (Scotland) Bill, but much more needs to be done on that, as well as on access to legal support.

I get the feeling from the debate that this is a clear and sincere collective endeavour by the Government and the Parliament and by political parties of every persuasion. All I hope is that, in the new parliamentary session—some of us will be here; some of us will not—we can garner that collective endeavour by the Government, the Parliament and members across parties.

It is only through such collective endeavour, when we agree budgets and strategies in this place, that we can meet the needs and aspirations of the victims/survivors who our committee spoke to, who were eloquent and impassioned in talking about their experiences—I thank them once more for that. I also thank the people providing front-line services on the ground, such as those at the financially included project, who work day in, day out supporting victims/survivors.

Let us come together in this place—the Parliament, the Government and members across parties— not just this afternoon but in the new parliamentary session to meet the needs of all those who find themselves to be victims of economic abuse. That is right for victims/survivors. More importantly, we need to do preventative work so that women can leave an abusive relationship at the earliest signs and are not trapped because of financial barriers.