Chamber and committees

Thank you, convener, and good morning, committee. Thank you for the invitation to attend to give evidence on the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 (Consequential and Supplementary Amendments) Regulations 2026, which, as you said, are accompanied by three negative instruments.

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. Nobody should have to choose between their safety and their home. This package of SSIs will bring into force new powers to protect victims of domestic abuse and hold perpetrators to account.

Part 2 of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 provides social landlords with a new ground to apply to the court for an order that, if it is granted, will enable the landlord to transfer a tenancy to a victim of domestic abuse. That will allow landlords, rather than victims themselves, to take action in court to transfer the tenancy. In introducing the regulations, we have worked with stakeholders—including social landlords and, crucially, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service—to develop the package of secondary legislation that is required to implement those provisions. The package of secondary legislation makes consequential changes to existing legislation. It also prescribes new statutory notice forms to allow the measures in part 2 to operate.

In particular, the regulations provide that only the abusive tenant can be removed from the property where a court order on the new ground is granted and not the victim and the victim’s family unless that family member is named in the court order. Only the abusive tenant will be given notice to remove themselves and their belongings from the property unless anyone else is specifically named in the order.

The tenant and any qualifying occupier must be notified that the landlord is seeking to raise a court action on domestic abuse grounds and provided with information on what that will mean for them. The victim is always notified that the landlord intends to raise court proceedings on the new domestic abuse ground, including when the victim has had to flee the property.

These changes are essential so that the victim and any members of the victim’s family cannot be removed from the property along with the abuser, and so that all parties understand what court action will mean for them, including, of course, the victim’s right to play a part in any court action that might arise.

Implementation of part 2 of the 2021 act has been very complex. It has required consequential changes to legislation, which I have been moving through. That has included changes to court orders and issues with data sharing between relevant bodies, all of which are essential but complicated. We have also begun progressing a number of other important measures to strengthen protection against homelessness for domestic abuse victim survivors, not least the creation of a national fund to leave. We put £1.5 million behind that in this financial year and have allocated £2 million for the following financial year.

We have also worked closely with the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service on the development of appropriate court rules and changes to court forms. The commencement date of 1 August, which we are proposing in the regulations, provides sufficient time for them to be ready. Detailed statutory guidance for social landlords on the use of the new provisions has also been produced. A draft has been shared with key stakeholders to seek their views and that will be updated accordingly.

In summary, the package of regulations will allow social landlords to take action on behalf of victims, removing a significant barrier that has forced too many people to flee their homes to escape abuse. The perpetrator can now be made to leave, not the victim. This is an important step in our commitment to continuing to tackle domestic abuse and to supporting those who are affected by it to rebuild their lives.

I will answer your final question first. As I said to Ms Baker, the guidance is under development. It has been shared with stakeholders and we will now incorporate their feedback before publishing the guidance in the spring so that it is ready when the regulations come into force in August.

There is a legitimate question, which Scottish Women’s Aid raised with me and which Ms Whitham alluded to, about training, understanding and the ability to navigate the complexity of domestic abuse in all its forms. There is work to be done in that regard and we are dealing with a lot of social landlords, some of whom have the capacity for training or for undertaking close and intensive work, while others do not. Through a combination of the guidance that we are developing on these rules in particular and of a provision in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 for domestic abuse policies to be developed and implemented, there will be a train of work that will allow us to ensure that a close understanding of the nature of the issue is embedded with all the social landlords who will navigate this.

I ask the committee to consider the motion favourably, as the regulations represent a significant step forward in protecting the housing rights of victim survivors of domestic abuse and their families.

I move,

That the Social Justice and Social Security Committee recommends that the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 (Consequential and Supplementary Amendments) Regulations 2026 [draft] be approved.

I will go through your questions, Ms Baker, and bring in my officials when I need to.

The first question is on the statutory guidance. It has been developed alongside stakeholders, it will be revised to reflect their comments and it will be published in spring. It will support social landlords to be ready for the go-live date of 1 August 2026. All is in order and under way with sufficient time to build in stakeholders’ views, and it will be ready in time for the regulations coming into force.

On your second question about the stakeholders that we have engaged with, I was keen to highlight the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, because that speaks to the complexity of getting the regulations to a position where they can be enforced. However, organisations such as Scottish Women’s Aid are vital to the development of that work. In my notes, I found a quote from Marsha Scott, the chief executive of Scottish Women’s Aid, who said:

“Not all can stay in their own homes safely, which is why refuge provision is so important, but for the many who could, this regulatory change will bring much-needed reform.”

I have fairly frequent dialogue with Scottish Women’s Aid on the regulations and on the fund to leave in particular, and that will continue, because its assistance in helping women to navigate the situation will be very important.

On your third question, which was about grounds for eviction, I will hand over to Craig McGuffie, our solicitor, who can talk us through that.

It absolutely does. We will seek to foster that approach through the guidance.

On your first question, I am not concerned that there will be a freezing effect on landlords’ willingness to rent to couples or families. Abuse can arise in almost any domestic situation or arrangement that you can imagine. Therefore, although it is vital that we work with landlords to help them understand the existence and nature of abuse, I am not concerned that doing that will have any effect on who they do or do not let to. In any case, letting should always be on the basis of housing need.

I will turn to Craig McGuffie to say more on the question about burden of proof, which is deliberately broad, because of what Ms Whitham said about the difficulties that are faced mostly, but not always, by women. In the vast majority of cases, it is women who suffer abuse. I would not be comfortable with setting a very high level for the burden of proof, such as requiring a court order or police information. I think that it is right to frame that broadly. The guidance will flesh it out, but it can include discussions, evidence, speaking to neighbours, testimony from the victim themselves all the way through to court provisions, should the landlord feel that that is required. It is deliberately broad. Craig may have more to say about the landlord’s perspective.

I have nothing further to add.

Motion agreed to.

I welcome that question. The dangers and difficulties that women face when they are being subjected to abuse make all of this much more complicated and sensitive. Careful thought is required, as you have encouraged us to take.

Although the regulations are an important step in allowing a victim/survivor to stay in her home and to have the perpetrator removed, ultimately, it relies on that woman feeling able to use the new administrative process. We know that, if you are being subjected to abuse, you are not always in a position to advocate for yourself and so on. That is why the guidance that we are producing with stakeholders will be critical, and it is why what Craig McGuffie said about the evidence of abuse and the breadth of our characterisation of abuse is important. There is no requirement for a court order or information from Police Scotland, although all of that will constitute grounds for the new form of charge to be used. A spectrum of things can constitute evidence of abuse, and we will encourage awareness of that through the guidance and our work with stakeholders. We will take a gendered and victim-centred approach to enable people to understand how the system will work.

The Scottish National Investment Bank is an absolutely critical partner. It is independent from Government and it is a critical partner in housing investment, not least in bridging the £800 million gap. We work closely with the investment bank. I would summarise the current position as follows. There has been great work to date—I can speak to some examples of that—where the investment bank has made an investment, made a substantial return and delivered homes in communities.

The more important thing is that there is real opportunity for that to increase. I have been speaking with representatives of SNIB, which has been doing a significant amount of market testing on the appetite for growth in housing. It is fair to say that there is a lot of it out there—provided that the right conditions can be created for investment.

By way of example, SNIB invested £60 million into the Thriving Investments mid-market rent fund to deliver affordable, high-quality rental homes across Scotland in mid-market rent. The fund has a mandate to build 1,500 high-quality homes close to major city centres, and it has already delivered 742 mid-market rent homes, with another 449 in development. That is a city example. The other example that I have in front of me is a very different proposition. It is in Lerwick, and it is a £730,000 investment that has supported the construction of six high-quality one-bedroom homes for key workers in Shetland. You can see from that not only the work that has already been done but the bank’s ability to invest in ways that support the needs of different communities.

I will mention, out of interest, that we recently took a delegation to London to meet investors there. The Scottish National Investment Bank came with us, and so did representatives of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Highland councils. They made the pitch for the investable proposition that is Scotland’s housing market, and it was well received. We have complemented that with work that the Deputy First Minister has been doing on the InvestScotland portal, which seeks to create one window through which to move in order to invest in Scotland. We are trying to simplify the offer, make the case and create the right conditions for it to work.

I will go to Kirsty Henderson for the details of the flexibility. In recent years, the funding has been directed, for the most part, to those areas with the greatest strain on their homelessness services. To my mind, there is a lot of flexibility in what they are able to do and acquire because it is based on their local market, which they know better than I do.

Kirsty can say more about Ms Tweed’s experience of the condition of acquisitions.