Meeting of the Parliament 10 March 2026 [Draft]
I am grateful to the members who have lodged amendments in this group on coercion, which is one of the key risks that are associated with the bill. During the stage 1 debate, when we were debating coercion, it was asserted—as we have heard tonight—that there is no evidence that coercion takes place in other international jurisdictions in which legislation of this nature has been introduced. I respect members who hold that view, but I simply do not believe that to be the case. Coercion is a wider societal issue and it has been for a long time.
Given that coercion is one of the most significant risks that are associated with the bill, it is wrong and dangerous to give the impression that, because there is no evidence from other international jurisdictions, coercion does not take place in areas such as assisted suicide. I know from the discussion that I had with Dr Anni Donaldson, who is an expert in this field, that anyone who asserts that coercion does not take place must be subject to some level of scrutiny with regard to the quality of the evidence base that has been evaluated in order to make that assertion.
I want to give some reasons as to why I am not convinced that that impression is the case. When we were framing the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill and making provision to address coercive and controlling behaviour in legislation for the first time, one of the challenges was to be able to define that type of offence. In the end, we decided to define it as a course of behaviour that occurs over a period of time.
Critical to making that offence work effectively is having the right skill set and professional group to undertake the assessment that is needed to identify such a course of behaviour over a period of time. The evidence shows that the key to identifying coercive and controlling behaviour in domestic abuse is often a relationship that is built up over a period of time with specialised police officers and social workers, who work with the individual to identify the coercion that is taking place.
I am saying that because there is strong evidence that individuals who are being coerced are often not even aware at the time that they are being coerced and controlled. That is why the point that Paul O’Kane made about the importance of skill sets is critical. That is also why, when we implemented the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, there was an extensive training programme across a range of agencies to develop the specialist skills that were necessary to help to underpin the legislation and the new offence that we had created.
With all due respect to Christine Grahame, and with no disrespect to medical colleagues, I say that it is evident that general practitioners, who hold a range of skill sets, would not be experts in identifying coercive and controlling behaviour in the short period involved in dealing with a declaration. That requires specialist skills and needs to be undertaken over a period of time.
Further, coercive and controlling behaviour takes place against vulnerable members of our society in our communities on a day-in, day-out basis. It materialises through adult protection cases that social work colleagues deal with on a day-in, day-out basis. In some cases, it involves physical abuse, sometimes it is coercive and controlling behaviour for financial purposes and there can be a range of other factors.
The reality is that that type of behaviour will also impact on assisted dying, should the bill be enacted. There is no way that we could suggest that that type of coercive and controlling behaviour will not happen in some way for assisted dying, in the same way as it happens now under adult protection legislation on a day-in, day-out basis for some of the most vulnerable members of our society.