Hansard

I am glad that the Scottish Government has brought to the chamber this debate on the importance of tackling violence against women and girls. Like other females across Scotland, I hope the fact that it has done so signals a new SNP approach to protecting the rights of women and girls, because, up to this point, there has been precious little evidence that the issue is anywhere near the top of the agenda.

In fact, the Scottish Government’s attitude to the protection of women and girls is not at all fairly represented in the text of its motion today. A clearer picture can be seen in the Government’s refusal to launch an inquiry into grooming gangs in Scotland, in the on-going and disgraceful situation relating to males being housed in women’s prisons and even in the shocking lack of action on everything from domestic abuse to the shocking year-on-year increases in rape and sexual assault. If SNP ministers were genuinely serious about ending violence towards women and girls in Scotland, they would do more than just offering warm words in this chamber.

Victims of child grooming gangs in Scotland cannot enjoy even warm words from this Scottish Government. From the First Minister down, senior ministers have repeatedly refused this much-needed investigation. Victims in other parts of the UK are finally getting the chance of justice and answers, but in Scotland—yet again—things just have to be different.

On the Conservatives’ side of the chamber, we have tried for quite some time to persuade the Scottish Government to change its mind, but attempt after attempt has been thwarted. When the Scottish Conservatives recently tried to put in a freedom of information request to find out more about the mysterious national child sexual abuse and exploitation strategic group, we were met with a bizarre rejection. In obstructing the publication of information, the response used policy language about marine planning as justification for the secrecy—marine planning, on the matter of grooming gangs! That was clearly a mistake at Scottish Government headquarters, but that sloppiness and negligence summed up rather well the SNP’s attitude to the matter.

What is more, further research by my colleague Liam Kerr found a complete absence of interest in the strategic group. We should remember that the Scottish Government claims that the establishment of the group negates the need for an inquiry, so we would think that attending its meetings would be rather important for senior Government ministers, yet the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs has never been, the Minister for Victims and Community Safety has not turned up either, and even the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise has yet to grace a meeting with her presence. Victims and members of the wider public will find it incredible that, on the one hand, the SNP cites the group as evidence of its tough response to child exploitation yet, on the other hand, no senior minister has seen fit to even show up to the meetings.

The continued refusal of this Government to hold a grooming gangs inquiry is a national disgrace. There is evidence of grooming in every part of Scotland, yet every part of the Government would rather close its eyes and pretend that it has not happened. It is a blinkered and shameful approach and it must change now.

We often hear ministers lament the number of women who are incarcerated in Scotland’s prisons. They are rightly described as being among the most vulnerable females in society and we know that, far from being feared and notorious criminals, many of them are victims of crime and abuse themselves. Despite all of that, however, the SNP is refusing to change its policy of allowing dangerous male criminals who happen to just think or say that they are females to be housed in women’s prisons. We know that those men do that because they are arrogant and abusive, because they want to pose a threat to women and because they think that they will have an easier life than they would have in a male prison. They are taking the system for a ride. The Supreme Court’s ruling on sex was abundantly clear and it is a disgrace that the Scottish Government has not heeded it. There should be no men in women’s prisons. It really is as simple as that.

Women and girls across Scotland are frightened for their safety. Domestic abuse is on a constant increasing trajectory and we know that it is females who bear the brunt of that. They are also usually the victims when it comes to rape—another crime that is on an alarmingly rising trend. In the current session of Parliament alone, 39 women in Scotland have lost their lives to male violence. There are so many things that our Government could be embarking upon to help to turn the tide on this. It could back my colleague and friend Pam Gosal’s Prevention of Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill, which would create a domestic abuse register. It could get serious about misogyny laws. It could properly resource a justice system that gets tough on perpetrators, punishes and then rehabilitates properly, and serves up a robust deterrent to would-be and repeat criminals. Only then will the women and girls of Scotland really believe that this Government is on their side.