5. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government is doing to support victims of domestic abuse in light of reports of increased incidents during the Covid-19 pandemic. (S5F-04373)

As many others have done, I have previously expressed my deep concern about the greater risks to women and children of domestic abuse during the pandemic. I again make a plea to anyone who is suffering such abuse to seek the help that exists.

Police Scotland continues to prioritise domestic abuse cases, and the Scottish Government is focused on ensuring that front-line services continue to provide support. We have allocated an additional £1.5 million to Scottish Women’s Aid and other such services and have recently published a new online resource for those working in housing, social work, health, education and other sectors to enable them to know where to direct people for further assistance. We remain committed to implementing the equally safe strategy and will introduce legislation on domestic abuse protection orders within this parliamentary session.

Women who are experiencing domestic abuse often have to make a devastating choice between staying in the home of the perpetrator or making themselves and their children homeless to get away from the abuse. One way of giving women much-needed breathing space in such situations is through emergency protective orders. How will the new domestic abuse bill give police and courts powers to ban domestic abusers from victims’ homes?

The First Minister:

The bill will provide new powers to impose restrictions on a suspected perpetrator of domestic abuse, including removing them from a home that they share with the person at risk and prohibiting them from contacting or otherwise abusing the person at risk while the order is in effect. The bill will also facilitate processes for changes to be made to social housing tenancy agreements to help victims stay in their own homes by giving powers to remove perpetrators from tenancy agreements. Too often, in the past and currently, it is the victim of abuse rather than the perpetrator who is faced with losing their home; we need to change that.

The measures are intended to provide protection for the person at risk and to enable them to take steps to address their longer-term safety and housing without them becoming homeless in order to protect themselves. I hope that those measures, which of course still have to go through the full scrutiny of Parliament, will help considerably with protecting those who are most at risk of domestic abuse.