Chamber and committees

Thank you.

Thank you for the invitation to provide an update on the progress with implementation of part 2 of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021. I understand the committee’s concerns that the legislation has not yet been implemented. As we know, domestic abuse is a leading cause of women’s homelessness in Scotland, and social landlords have a vital role to play in keeping tenants safe.

Part 2 of the 2021 act provides social landlords with a new ground to apply to the court for an order that, if granted, will have the effect of enabling the landlord to transfer a tenancy to a victim. That will allow landlords, rather than the victims themselves, to take action in court to transfer the tenancy.

Implementation of part 2 of the 2021 act has taken longer than anticipated and a number of challenges have been identified that we are working through with partner organisations in order to allow the provisions to operate as intended. We have worked closely with the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service on the development of appropriate court rules and changes to court forms.

We have also worked with key stakeholders to develop the secondary legislation that is needed to bring the provisions into force, with the necessary Scottish statutory instruments prepared to support final implementation.

Earlier this year, detailed statutory guidance for social landlords on the use of the new provisions was produced, and the draft was shared with key stakeholders for their views. The feedback has been taken on board and an updated document is being produced. Sharing the draft guidance also brought out further concerns from Police Scotland on information sharing with social landlords, and we are working to find a solution to the issues raised.

We are committed to ensuring that the measures are implemented as intended, and the Government will continue to work towards bringing part 2 of the 2021 act into force in December 2025, although the need to update court rules and resolve the concerns related to information sharing that were raised by the police might affect the timetable.

I will stop there, convener, to let members ask questions.

The legislative process took place at pace because it was during Covid. We were trying to provide for protection orders, and we are now dealing with the aftermath. Stage 3 amendments on which background work might not have been done in relation to their operation might have been agreed to. That can add delays to implementation of provisions, because we need to do work relating to amendments that were agreed to. There are lots of lessons to be learned. I do not know whether Jeff Gibbons wants to add anything.

I will ask Simon Stockwell to respond. There is still a lot of work to be done in relation to the 2020 act, as we still have to work through the amendments that I referred to. Simon, if we assume that the act is a priority for the next Government, what timescale do you realistically envisage for implementing the child welfare reporters register, for example?

I thank Ms McNair for that question. I know that the committee recently finished its evidence taking on civil legal aid, and I look forward to your report and your recommendations from that.

I think that there is scope for consideration of that suggestion, but as I said in a previous evidence session, I have some concerns about removing means testing in this area. There would be a cost to the public purse, and to ensure equality, we might need to automatically give legal aid to the defender—the person who is alleged to have caused harm—as well as to the applicant. It is quite a complex area and I am open to suggestions on how we move forward. That is worth considering.

I am grateful to have the opportunity to outline our approach to implementation of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020. I set out our plans in my letter of 11 March to you, convener. We remain committed to implementing the 2020 act in full.

To date, the Scottish Government has made three sets of commencement regulations in relation to the 2020 act. The most recent set will commence provisions to amend requirements when a parent or another person with parental responsibilities and rights is making a major decision about a child’s life. Those provisions will commence on 21 September this year. Those regulations also commenced, as of two days ago, provisions that require a court, when considering a child’s welfare in a range of proceedings, to consider whether any delay in those proceedings would negatively affect the child.

We will also lay SSIs in September this year to bring in the regulation of child contact centres. Laying instruments as soon as we can will provide clarity on how regulation will work.

We will lay a further commencement SSI later this year, in October. It will cover a number of areas, including the remainder of section 1 of the 2020 act, on the views of children in court cases in areas such as child contact; sections 2 and 3, on views of children in relation to adoption and permanence proceedings and children’s hearings proceedings; section 16, on factors for the courts to consider before making an order on matters such as child contact and residence; section 18, on the duty on the courts to consider the child’s best interests when allowing access to information; and section 30(2), on delay in relation to child contact and residence cases.

There is still more work to do. For example, the planned register of child welfare reporters is a key provision of the 2020 act. Child welfare reporters can play a key role in contact and residence cases—they provide reports to the sheriff who is hearing the case and they interview key people, including the child who will be at the centre of the case. We have re-established the child welfare reporter working group, which will look back at changes that were made previously and look forward to the implementation of the register.

I hope that that brief introduction reassures the committee that implementation of the 2020 act is taking place and is continuing and that we recognise the need to implement legislation. The 2020 act is particularly important, given that it is about children. I am happy to answer any questions.

I will ask Simon Stockwell to confirm this, but I understand that we will lay the SSIs that I just referred to—in relation to sections 1, 2, 3, 16, 18 and 30—in October this year and that the provisions will come into effect in October 2026. However, the lead-in time for the child contact centre SSIs will be a bit longer, at 18 months.

That is all considered when thinking about how we move forward with everything. I do not know whether Jeff Gibbons or Matt Elsby wants to add anything.

Thank you very much. Good morning, committee. Convener, I have an opening statement on part 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 and another on the housing aspect, which is in part 2. Is that all right?

The capacity of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to provide emergency cover in any particular area is an operational matter for the service. Having said that, the emergencies that the service responds to have changed significantly over the years and it is right that it carefully considers how to adapt to the changing risks in order to remain effective and efficient, with firefighters being in the right place at the right time. The SFRS carries out detailed risk assessments based on a community risk index model that takes into account a wide variety of factors, including future population growth, industry and other hazards.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is undertaking a strategic service review, and a full public consultation will be published next week. I urge anyone with any interest in it to please engage with that. I have been kept updated on the SFRS plans for the consultation and have received assurances that supporting evidence will be published alongside the consultation. I emphasise that it is about providing an optimal service to maintain community safety and inform final decisions. Robust evidence and data will need to be at the heart of decisions concerning any possible changes following the review. I reiterate to the member that I am always happy to meet him, and I will have a drop-in session next week if he would like to attend that.