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Plenary, 02 Dec 2009

02 Dec 2009 · S3 · Plenary

Item of business

Violence Against Women

Neil, Alex SNP Central Scotland Watch on SPTV

Partly as a result of representations from Margaret Curran and other stakeholders, during this year both Kenny MacAskill, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, and I have worked with key stakeholders, including the police, to identify where additional resources are required in the run-up to, during and immediately after an old firm game. I congratulate Strathclyde Police, which, for the past two old firm games, has engaged in a range of activities. For obvious reasons, I will not go into the detail here, but during the latest old firm game, there was a welcome 28 per cent reduction in incidents of domestic abuse compared with the figure for the previous game. That shows the impact that those police activities and other activities are having around old firm games.

We still want to step up the effort and do better, but that example shows that, when services—the services for which I am responsible and the police service—work together with the old firm football clubs, which both support our campaign against domestic violence, we can make a real impact. A 28 per cent reduction is very welcome, but we want to make an even greater reduction in the future. I totally recognise the point that Margaret Curran makes.

Earlier this year, Councillor Harry McGuigan, representing COSLA, and I provided a joint foreword for our strategy, which we launched at the Rape Crisis Scotland offices. That demonstrates COSLA's commitment—and the commitment of various local authorities—as a key partner in the implementation of "Safer Lives: Changed Lives". Other key partners are health boards and the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.

Some of the achievements that have been made already are worth mentioning. I do not present them in any partisan way, as a lot of the initiatives were started under the previous Administration. Whatever the colour of the Administration of the Scottish Government, we are all equally determined to tackle the problem of domestic abuse. One innovative measure that has been taken is the rolling out of the Caledonian system under which services are provided to women and children throughout Scotland at the same time as the perpetrators of domestic abuse are dealt with. As I have said, the statistics show many cases of repeat domestic abuse. We must identify those repeat cases and act on them in a preventive way, as Strathclyde Police has done around old firm games, but we must do so more systematically, and not just around old firm games.

There are many other examples that I could mention, but I have run out of time and will perhaps use my closing speech to highlight some of the points that I have been unable to make in my opening speech.

I move,

That the Parliament is pleased to reaffirm its commitment to ending violence against women; supports the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence and its theme this year of Commit – Act – Demand: we can end violence against women!; celebrates the commitment of partners across Scotland, including the voluntary sector, local authorities, the police, NHS boards and others, to work together to end violence against women; acknowledges the importance of the shared understanding developed through the Safer Lives: Changed Lives strategic approach, and welcomes the progress that has been made to date on tackling violence against women in Scotland, including the groundbreaking work to involve young people who have experienced domestic abuse as expert advisers.

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Plenary, 02 Dec 2009

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