Chamber and committees

I am grateful for the opportunity to be with you this morning.

The Scottish Government takes seriously the implementation of legislation that is passed by this Parliament. The work that is involved in implementation varies enormously and can be particularly complex. Some provisions have little or no cost, whereas others give rise to significant costs. In addition, the implementation of legislation can rely on other organisations and agencies that we need to work with. The three acts that we are discussing today involve some significant operational issues for a number of agencies—in particular, justice agencies. In addition, in some areas, rules of court may be needed.

Many of the substantive provisions of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 are already in force. Work is on-going on the regulation of child contact centres. We aim to lay Scottish statutory instruments next year to put the Care Inspectorate in place as the regulator. We also plan to lay commencement regulations for further provisions of the act next year, and have reconvened a working group on child welfare reporters.

We also remain committed to implementing the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021. Part 1, when implemented, will provide the police and the courts with new civil powers to issue domestic abuse protection notices and domestic abuse protection orders. The scheme of protection notices and orders is intended to protect people from the abusive behaviour of their partner or ex-partner. We continue to engage with justice partners and other stakeholders, including Scottish Women’s Aid, which officials met recently, to talk through the operational challenges that have emerged as a consequence of the legislation’s provisions for the protection orders scheme. Some of the challenges that have been identified include clarity on the estimated number of cases and, in turn, the costs of implementing the scheme and the short timescales required to process and implement a DAPN and a DAPO, which have been identified by justice partners as extremely challenging.

There are also wider challenges as to how the views of children will be gathered. That area has been discussed with justice partners and outlined in discussions with Scottish Women’s Aid. We are endeavouring to find a workable and sustainable way forward. At this stage, it is not possible to provide an informed estimate of when that will be completed, although, of course, it remains a priority for us.

Colleagues in the United Kingdom Government and other devolved Administrations, whom officials meet regularly, have faced similar concerns. The UK Government has just launched a pilot, having chosen not to resolve some of the issues that we are wrestling with—for example, how best and how quickly to take the evidence of a child.

We aim to bring into force next year part 2 of the act along with sections 2 and 3 of part 1, to provide additional protection to those who are at risk of domestic abuse. Part 2 will help to protect victims by giving social landlords the ability to apply to the court for an order that, if granted, will have the effect of allowing the landlord to transfer a tenancy to a victim survivor. However, court rules will need to be updated, which might affect the timetable. We are taking forward the wide range of tasks that are necessary to commencing the social housing tenancy provisions in part 2 of the act, including secondary legislation, changes to court procedures and work with stakeholders to develop statutory guidance. The process has taken longer than we anticipated, which is why there has been a delay in implementation. We also need to ensure that the provisions operate as intended.

We have committed to implementing the Female Genital Mutilation (Protection and Guidance) (Scotland) Act 2020 within the equally safe delivery plan. Once implemented, the protection orders will provide a fast and responsive mechanism to reduce the risk to potential victims of female genital mutilation, and the creation of statutory guidance will help to address knowledge gaps and offer clarity and certainty for practitioners and organisations working with victims of female genital mutilation.

To ensure the effective implementation of the act, we are working closely with external stakeholders including local authorities, Police Scotland, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and our addressing violence against minority ethnic women and girls network.???

In conclusion, we are committed to commencing legislation passed by the Parliament. Those are complex pieces of legislation to implement but work is on-going.

I am happy to answer questions from the committee. Given that the acts all relate to quite specific areas of policy, I will also seek to bring in Jeff Gibbons, Simon Stockwell and Nel Whiting as appropriate.

My answer to the convener’s question still stands in relation to the challenges that we face. We recognise the importance of FGM as an issue. That is why we introduced the 2020 act, why we are still committed to it and why its provisions remain important to us.

I agree with Ms Gosal that FGM is an abhorrent practice. It was already illegal and had been illegal for some time. The purpose of the act was to try to make sure that women and girls would be better protected through the system. The task at hand is to get on with implementation—I would like that to happen as soon as possible.

I am being candid with the committee about the information that I have been provided with, which is that the timescale that I mentioned is the realistic timescale that is being worked towards. There have been interruptions and there are resourcing issues—I am not shying away from that. I have given an indicative timescale of when we hope to fully implement the act. Of course, every sinew will be strained to see whether it can be done sooner than that. However, I do not want to mislead the committee by suggesting something that would be unrealistic given where we are right now in December 2024.

I do not disagree with Ms Gosal’s point that implementation has taken too long. There have been reasons for that delay. The task now is to actually get on with it and make sure that the act is put into effect so that we can ensure that cohorts of the population who might be at risk are better protected.

Nel Whiting might have something to add.

Would it be possible for me to answer your question, Ms White? Would it be possible for you to ask me a question and for me to come back with an answer? Can we operate on that basis?

I am very happy to commit to doing that for the specific act that we are discussing—indeed, for all three acts that we are discussing today.

I disagree. We have set out the reasons why there has been a delay. Nel Whiting has gone into some of that territory. We are happy to expand further on some of the challenges that we have faced but, to be frank, the notion that there has been back-pedalling is nonsensical and insulting.

I will bring Nel in on that but, fundamentally, when it comes to the national health service, NHS Lothian has been mentioned—

On the first element of your question, I have already made the point about the activity that we plan to take forward, when we will make four more sets of regulations in the new year. For example, we will use secondary legislation to put the Care Inspectorate in place as the independent regulator of child contact services. That work is on-going, and I plan to make the SSIs to enable that in 2025.

The second point was on what we might be able to do just now around child welfare reporters. I am not saying that we do not want to fully implement the Children (Scotland) Act 2020, but there might be things that we could do now, short of fully implementing it. We are actively considering that in advance of implementing the new register.

There is a working group on child welfare reporters, which contains a range of stakeholders, and it met for the first time on 20 November. It was chaired by Siobhian Brown as Minister for Victims and Community Safety. The working group has a remit to look back at how changes from the previous working group are working in practice and to look ahead at what is needed for any new register.

In relation to your fundamental point and your question on how any improvements could be made now, I am given to understand that there are concerns around training, so the working group could look into that. In fact, I think that the group is going to consider that at its next meeting.

We are here to talk about the implementation of legislation, and that remains important. However, where there are things that we can do in the immediate here and now, we should seek to do that and we should try to take things forward.

But you are going to.

I will perhaps bring in Simon Stockwell to see whether he can provide any more detail around timescales. Clearly, dialogue will be necessary to ensure that the regulations are fully informed and appropriate and will achieve their specific purpose. From my perspective, that should be done as soon as possible, but with the caveat that the regulations have to be effective.

Simon, do you have any more information on timescales?

Again, as part of our commitment to keeping the committee regularly informed, we will ensure that we take a note of that and make it part of our work.