The Minister for Housing and I wrote to the Convener of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on 11 March outlining some of the challenges that remained around the implementation of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021 and our planned next steps - Letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs and the Minister for Housing, 11 March 2025.

By way of an update I can advise that the workshop referenced within my letter and in connection with Domestic Abuse Protection Orders which is Part 1 of the Act, has now taken place, and involved members of the Implementation Advisory Board originally established to help make progress on the work in this area.

I am currently awaiting advice from officials and will look to reflect on the outcomes and discussions at the workshop, with the aim to provide clarity on how we will move forward in the coming months.

In addition, I can also advise that in relation to Part 2 of the Act, draft statutory guidance and information about the secondary legislation required for implementation is currently being shared with key stakeholders with a view to laying this legislation in summer and publishing the guidance as soon as possible thereafter. We are aiming to bring Part 2 of the Act into force in December 2025. Court rules will however also need to be updated and this may affect the timetable.

Although not formally adopted under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 nor the Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (Scotland) Regulations 2012, the finfish sector’s Code of Good Practice supports producers to deliver on their welfare obligations.

The Scottish Government, in its response to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee (13 March 2025), has committed to exploring options for how to best to set welfare standards for production going forward and will update the Committee in September 2025 on progress and next steps.

We are currently developing guidance for the welfare of farmed fish at the time of slaughter taking into account the recommendations made in the UK Animal Welfare Committee report of 2014 and its updated opinion of 2023. We will engage with the industry and other stakeholders, including animal welfare organisations, for their views at the appropriate stage.

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) are responsible for considering welfare complaints and investigating potential breaches in welfare legislation.

APHA veterinarians have the professional knowledge and training to assess against the welfare needs set out in Section 24 (3) of The Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006.

The Code of Good Practice for Scottish Finfish Aquaculture is a sector developed code which supports producers in understanding and delivering their obligations around welfare and other matters. Compliance with the code may form part of the range evidence used by APHA in considering whether obligations have been breached.

The Code of Good Practice for Scottish Finfish Aquaculture is independent of Scottish Government which is not responsible for any review or updates made to the Code.

The Scottish Government, in its response to the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee (13 March 2025), has committed to exploring options for how to best to set welfare standards for production going forward and will update the Committee in September 2025 on progress and next steps.

As highlighted in the launch of Police Scotland's Body Worn Video (BWV) rollout, around 750 Tayside (D) Division officers, including road policing officers, operational support and custody staff, will be equipped with the new devices over the coming weeks. As the roll out progresses, Police Scotland will issue more than 10,500 Home Office-approved Motorola VB400 cameras to frontline officers from constable to inspector ranks, and to police custody staff, across the country.

Previously to this national rollout, approximately 440-Armed Policing Officers have access to BWV. BWV has been used in A Division since 2010 as part of a legacy Grampian Police deployment and currently have 228 operational devices in use on a pool basis. The national BWV solution will replace this legacy system in line with other divisions.

In total approximately 1440 BWV devices are currently operational with a mixed estate of both pool and personal issue. Training across Tayside is currently ongoing, which will increase officer use of this technology daily.

In 2021-22, the Scottish Government provided a grant of £200,000 to FareShare Scotland to deliver the Surplus With Purpose programme. This supported the redistribution of 1,001 tonnes of fresh surplus produce from Scottish farms, equivalent to 2.3 million meals, and benefited an estimated 53,700 people via 448 community organisations. The food redistributed was primarily potatoes and carrots which would otherwise have gone to waste.

In September 2022, Surplus With Purpose activity resumed as part of a wider £313,000 allocation from the Fair Food Fund 2022-23. The overall funding contributed to the redistribution of 3,203 tonnes of surplus food, representing 86% of all food distributed by FareShare Scotland – this included a proportion of redistributed surplus food from farms. This supported 585 community organisations and helped provide 8.9 million meals to an estimated 66,000 people.

In addition to these two years, the Scottish Government has, and continues to, fund FareShare to support the redistribution of surplus food to people; this support does not specifically target surplus from farms, but targets a range of surplus from farms and other sources.

The experience of families will inform the forthcoming focused review of FAIs in relation to deaths in custody.

The operation of FAIs is a matter for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service rather than for the Scottish Government. The experience of families will inform the forthcoming focused review of FAIs in relation to deaths in custody.

The statutory framework for FAIs is the Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc (Scotland) Act 2016. The legislation introduced a requirement for the Sheriff conducting the FAI to make a determination setting out their conclusions and recommendations as soon as possible. Recommendations from a Sheriff must be responded to by the body to whom they are directed. The 2016 Act sets out that the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service is required to publish the determination and subsequent response from the party to whom the recommendations are directed. The response will normally detail what action has been taken or is proposed to be taken in light of the recommendations. These are published on the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service website and are therefore publicly available.

The Scottish Government recently announced a review into how fatal accident inquiries operate. That review follows the publication of Sheriff Collins' determination of the fatal accident inquiry into the deaths of Katie Allen and William Brown in Polmont YOI in 2018. There are however no specific plans for the monitoring of recommendations made following FAIs generally. Each policy area will monitor recommendations of relevance to them.