To ask the First Minister what plans the Scottish Government has to bring forward legislation to criminalise non-fatal strangulation. (S6F-03622)

Non-fatal strangulation is an abhorrent act, and I fully recognise the significant physical and psychological impact that that type of criminality has on victims and their families. I have met Fiona Drouet, who explained the basis of the petition that she has presented to the Parliament to make non-fatal strangulation a stand-alone criminal offence.

Conduct amounting to non-fatal strangulation is already a criminal offence under the common law of assault, and carries maximum penalties of up to life imprisonment. However, we constantly keep the law under review. For a stand-alone offence to be put in place, we would need to be confident that there is a gap in the law. We will give the proposal serious consideration.

I thank the First Minister for that response. Non-fatal strangulation is a known, serious and growing problem. Thirty-five per cent of women between the ages of 16 and 34 have experience of it, and each year that passes sees more violence, strokes and deaths. It is clear that the common law route for dealing with this offence is not working. As Fiona Drouet, who lost her daughter, says,

“we know you are eight times more likely to be murdered by the person that has strangled you. We can’t ignore that, we can’t treat that like common assault because it’s far more complicated, far more complex and far more dangerous than that.”

A defence of so-called rough sex is being used and it is being accepted by courts. That resonates with the “she asked for it” idea—a misogynistic myth that it has taken years to overturn.

Doing nothing more is not an option. We require proper data collection via criminal health routes, an awareness-raising programme and a clearer prosecution route. Will the First Minister meet me, Professor Cath White from the Institute for Addressing Strangulation, Fiona Mackenzie from the We Can’t Consent to This campaign and Linda Thompson from the Women’s Support Project to take forward the issue?

I hope that, in my original answer, I indicated the seriousness with which I take the issue. The Government will give serious consideration to the matter.

I disagree with Michelle Thomson’s characterisation of the point that I made about non-fatal strangulation already being a criminal offence under the common law of assault. It is a serious criminal offence that carries a maximum penalty of up to life imprisonment. However, the Government will explore the question of the appropriateness of a stand-alone offence.

Michelle Thomson set out many actions that need to be taken. I am very happy for the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs to have a meeting on the matter, and I will obviously be close to the issue.

However, there is one other thing that needs to change, and that is the behaviour of boys and men. Last Thursday afternoon, I took part in a debate in the Parliament on violence against women and girls, because I take deadly seriously my responsibility as a male First Minister of Scotland to make it absolutely clear that the behaviour of boys and men is integral—central—to the experiences of women in our society. We will consider all the measures that we need to take on criminal offences, but I will lead from the front a campaign to say to boys and men in Scotland that their behaviour has got to improve.

At the Beira’s Place event that I co-sponsored with Claire Baker last week, we heard alarming feedback about what is going on and the frightening frequency of non-fatal strangulation. Within six to eight seconds, a woman loses consciousness. After 15 seconds, her bladder will be incontinent. After 30 seconds, her bowels will open. She will be brain dead within four minutes. I note the First Minister’s remarks to Michelle Thomson, and I implore him to take a look at the law.

I note that the First Minister referred to Fiona Drouet, whose daughter Emily tragically took her own life in Aberdeen after being choked by her boyfriend. If the First Minister believes that common assault reflects the gravity of the crime, I ask him to consider meeting the experts and campaigners and to do that in a cross-party way—as he did with placental growth factor testing—and to explore why they are all calling for legislative change.

I hope that I have given Parliament enough reassurance about the seriousness with which I take the issue. However, I have to say that non-fatal strangulation is treated as a very serious criminal matter. I understand the rationale and the argument for a stand-alone offence, but I do not want these exchanges to suggest in any way that the practice, which I deplore, does not, under common law, carry a very serious criminal penalty of up to life imprisonment. It is a very serious offence. We will consider whether it should be a stand-alone offence, but I do not want these exchanges to suggest in any way that the penalties for that type of behaviour are anything other than very serious.

It is important to recognise that, in the survey that Michelle Thomson referred to, the figure of a third of people who had experienced choking during consensual sex includes men and women. The survey shows that non-fatal strangulation during consensual sex is becoming increasingly common, to the extent that it is being normalised.

On a connected point, earlier this year, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs advised me that the Scottish Government would work with key partners on promoting and sharing guidance issued by the Institute for Addressing Strangulation, and that officials would engage with health officials and Police Scotland on the issues of non-fatal strangulation and improving pathways between healthcare and policing. Can the First Minister update us on the progress on that work, particularly in relation to the public health messaging that needs to go out to people aged between 16 and 35, which is the group in which the practice is increasingly common?

The work that Claire Baker has set out is part of the approach that the Government takes on gender-based violence. As I have said, important messages have to be communicated to change behaviour and to make people aware of the risks of that practice. It is important that that is informed by the Government’s activities, and I will ensure that a detailed response on the actions that the Government has taken is given to Claire Baker as a consequence of our exchanges today.