Domestic Abuse Bill debated in Parliament to much support

At First Minister’s questions last week I raised an issue that I had first brought to the floor of the Scottish Parliament in February of this year regarding the UK Government’s planned reductions in housing benefit on vulnerable people who stay in supported and Women’s Aid refuge accommodation.

In February I highlighted the worry and distress that the plans were causing at that time.

The First Minister welcomed, as I do, the news that the UK Government is abandoning these proposals.

The announcement by the UK Government to abandon the proposals offers welcome assurance that funding for the sector will be maintained at current levels, and that refuges are no longer at risk of closure as a result of the UK Welfare reforms.

This is all the more important in the context of the proposed Bill on Domestic Abuse, which is part of the SNP Government programme for Government.

The first opportunity to debate the proposed Bill was on Thursday of last week and I was pleased to contribute to an informative debate that received support from across the debating chamber.

We know from the most recent published statistics that North Lanarkshire remains an area with high incidence of reported domestic abuse but it also has one of the highest proportion of successful convictions.

This is in no short measure due to the Domestic Abuse Investigation Unit for Lanarkshire’s division, based in East Kilbride, tackling local abusers and with all of Scotland’s 17,234 officers committed to reducing harm in the communities from domestic abuse. Any instance of domestic abuse is to be deplored. It is an abhorrent and largely hidden crime in our communities.

I would urge any victims of any age to come forward and seek help. Police Scotland have made domestic abuse a priority for a number of years, with the formation for the Domestic Abuse Task Force and the establishment of the National Group to Address Violence Against Women. But of course anyone can be the victim of domestic abuse.

The work the Domestic Abuse Task Force carries out tackles the worst domestic abuse offenders, ensuring that there is ‘No place to hide’.

We have seen over 300 years of imprisonment and/or life long restriction orders given out by courts, in the last 12 months.

I believe one of the most significant steps forward in tackling this abhorrent crime is the establishment of the Disclosure Scheme for Domestic Abuse Scotland.

The scheme provides a formal means for concerned individuals or partner agencies to make enquiries about their partner or someone else’s partner if they are worried that they may have a history of abuse.

Again, I urge anyone with concerns to raise them through Police Scotland or their partner agencies.

The proposed Domestic Abuse Bill Scotland will be the final tool in the box that will ensure that all forms of domestic abuse, including psychological abuse and coercive control, are criminalised.

This will make Scotland one of only a handful of countries around the world to have courts that can consider both acts that would be criminal under the existing law, such as assault and threats, and psychological abuse and coercive and controlling behaviour, which can be difficult to prosecute under existing law.