The second item of business is consideration of the Scottish Government’s response to our stage 1 report on the Forced Marriage etc (Protection and Jurisdiction) (Scotland) Bill. Stage 2 of the bill will be taken at next week’s committee meeting. Are there any comments on the response, which members have in front of them?
Overall, I think that the Government has picked up on many of the issues that we raised during our deliberations on the bill. It is difficult to comment further until we see the Government’s amendments, but on the whole it has covered a lot of the issues and has even suggested that certain things should be clarified in guidance.
I am pleased that in response to what we said in paragraph 9 of our report about the reference to duress in the definition, the Government has said that it will explore the issue and include a question on it in the consultation on the guidance.
Perhaps we can ask the minister about that next week at stage 2—[Interruption.] The clerk tells me that we can try to get the information before then, which would be even better.
That would be good.
It is encouraging that the Government has taken up so many of our recommendations and will lodge amendments that will address the points that we made.
I am delighted that the Government will lodge an amendment, the effect of which will be to ensure that proceedings for a forced marriage protection order will be added to the list of proceedings in relation to which a referral may be made under the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011.
That is a nice tidying up of the situation.
I buttonholed the minister on the issue.
I thank members for their comments, and we note the Government’s response. As we agreed, the committee will move into private.
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