Criminal Justice Committee
Post-Legislative Scrutiny of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018
Background
The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill (now 2018 Act) was passed by the Scottish Parliament in February 2018.
The 2018 Act created a new offence of engaging in an abusive course of conduct against a current partner or an ex-partner. It also provided that the new offence may be aggravated where a child is involved. For example, when a child sees, hears or is present during a domestic abuse incident.
Further changes included-
- creating a standard condition of bail for domestic abuse cases prohibiting an accused from obtaining a statement from a complainer other than through a solicitor;
- placing a restriction on granting bail in some domestic abuse cases;banning an accused person in a domestic abuse case from conducting their own defence in court;
- allowing certain expert evidence relating to the behaviour of victims of domestic abuse;
- applying certain special measures aimed at protecting child witnesses during trials;
- requiring the court to consider the future protection of the victim when sentencing an offender in a domestic abuse case; and
- telling the court to always consider making a non-harassment order (NHO) against a person convicted of a domestic abuse offence
The Committee agreed to review how the 2018 Act has been implemented, to determine whether any issues have arisen and, if so, how these might be resolved. This is part of the Committee’s efforts to conduct post-legislative scrutiny of criminal justice legislation. They published a report as part of this post-legislative scrutiny – link below.
Oral evidence
The Committee held a one-off evidence session on 8 March 2023.