Meeting of the Parliament 02 December 2025
At the same time, the SNP refuses to call for a grooming gangs inquiry, all in the name of political correctness, and chooses to bury its head in the sand as if grooming gangs are not a problem. The problem is not going away, but the SNP keeps kicking the can down the road. That is why I am proud that the Scottish Conservatives will keep bringing up the issue until justice is served.
Given that the debate is on uniting local and national efforts across sectors to end violence against women and girls, I would like to take some time to speak about an event that I attended in East Dunbartonshire. Last Monday, East Dunbartonshire Women’s Aid hosted an event entitled “Empowering Deaf Women to Report Domestic Abuse”. Deaf women and girls who have been domestically abused must overcome extra hurdles that are not necessarily experienced by women and girls who can hear. We heard first hand that Police Scotland and women’s aid organisations, with the latter already being short on resources, do not always have British Sign Language interpreters or staff who have the knowledge of BSL. At the same time, many interpreters do not feel comfortable taking up domestic abuse cases. It was also shocking to hear that many deaf women were not aware of words such as “consent” and “coercion”.
As the police do not gather data on disability in domestic abuse cases, it is difficult to identify the extent of the problem. Those women are already being let down by the current systems and they are let down further when they are at the most vulnerable stage.
The Scottish Government likes to brag about its equally safe strategy, which is more than welcome, but the picture on the ground is different, as more needs to be done. That is where my Prevention of Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill comes into play. The bill would introduce a domestic abuse register that will operate in a similar way to the sex offenders register by helping authorities to better monitor those who are convicted of crimes of domestic abuse. At the same time, the bill would put in place a mandatory assessment of whether someone is capable of rehabilitation, while also mandating domestic abuse education at schools. Finally, my bill would improve data collection so that the Scottish Government and authorities would have a clearer picture of which communities are affected more than others, such as the disabled or black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.
My bill has been backed by the third sector and survivors of domestic abuse. Tomorrow, the Criminal Justice Committee will take evidence on it, and I hope that it is supported by members from all parties at stage 1 and stage 3. I hope that members can come together for once and agree that the current model is simply not good enough. Things will not change overnight but, as parliamentarians, it is our duty to ensure that no more lives are lost to sex-based violence.
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