Equal Opportunities Committee, 30 Sep 2008

Meeting date: Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Official Report 196KB pdf

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Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Item 2 is consideration of the written evidence that we have received on the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill. Members will recall that, on 9 September, we agreed to invite written evidence from a number of organisations on whether the bill will provide adequate protection from abuse to prostitutes and trafficked women. We have received responses from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, from Glasgow City Council, on behalf of the Routes Out of Prostitution partnership and the trafficking awareness-raising alliance project, and from the Scottish Trades Union Congress. We are still waiting to receive the response of Strathclyde Police.

When discussing the responses, members may wish to consider whether there are any issues that we should highlight to the Justice Committee, which is the lead committee for stage 1 consideration of the bill and which is due to take evidence from women's and children's organisations on 28 October and 2 November. Do members have any comments?

I was heartened by the responses, which are really useful. I think that we should pass on to the Justice Committee the points that the clerks have picked out and ensure that it considers them.

I am content that the Cabinet Secretary for Justice drew attention to section 10, which provides a list of circumstances under which consent is never present, and said that it has

"particular relevance to those trafficked for sexual exploitation or otherwise forced into prostitution".

I am happy to see that.

I know that it is not up to us to discuss the STUC's suggestion that the experiences of trafficked women should be included in the list in section 10, but it is an interesting point to pass on to the Justice Committee. One of us could perhaps lodge an amendment on the matter, so that it is discussed further. It is a really useful suggestion.

The idea that section 10 could include a provision on

"where a complainer has been subject to behaviour consistent with grooming"

also needs to be considered in some depth because that specific point has not been discussed before. In the previous session, the Justice 1 Committee had a look at the general issue when we considered the Protection of Children and Prevention of Sexual Offences (Scotland) Bill, so some work has been done, but it would be useful to do some more.

The issue of sexual history and character evidence comes up all the time, so it would be good to underline its importance to the Justice Committee. The submission refers to the discussion on whether that should be dealt with in legislation or guidance. That should be examined, because some of the changes that we made in legislation in the previous session made the situation worse as it was taken that people were allowed to ask about sexual history. It is important that we are clear about that point.

The final point is about children and young people. We need to ensure that we talk about them too. All the points in the paper are important to pass on.

If there are no other comments, I suggest that we forward the written submissions to the Justice Committee, with our own comments on the proposed addition to section 10 and on the issues of grooming and sexual history evidence. We can form our comments to pass to the Justice Committee on the issues that we think are worthy of note and, we hope, important enough for it to explore.

I agree with what Marlyn Glen said, so I will not add to it, but I have a quick question. Could the committee lodge an amendment and what would the timescale be for that? I am conscious that committee members cannot go to the Justice Committee meeting because the committee is elsewhere on that day. Will it be possible for us to consider lodging an amendment?

Terry, can you help us on that?

An amendment to the bill would be considered at stage 2. We are still at stage 1, so the Justice Committee still has to report on the bill. If the bill is agreed to by the Parliament, we will then reach stage 2, which is when an amendment would be lodged. I guess that stage 2 will not take place for a few months yet.

But it is something that we could consider.

It is something that the committee could consider doing. Any member can lodge an amendment, and if they wanted to make it clear that it was in the name of the Equal Opportunities Committee, they could seek to do that. It would then be discussed at the Justice Committee as the lead committee.

Are we content for our immediate response to be to pass on the written submissions that we have received plus our comments on the three aspects that we hope that the Justice Committee will pick up on?

Members indicated agreement.

That concludes our public business. We move into private session to consider a paper from our gender reporter.

Meeting continued in private until 12:06.