Question reference: S5O-04228
- Asked by: Rona Mackay, MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, Scottish National Party
- Date lodged: 26 February 2020
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Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 March 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government when an evaluation will be undertaken of the impact of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 on stalking offences.
Answer
The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 came into effect on 1 April 2019 and created a new, specific offence of domestic abuse. The Scottish Ministers have a statutory duty to report on implementation of the Domestic Abuse Act 3 years after commencement and it is intended that a report will be published in late 2022.
Although the stalking offence and the domestic abuse offence are different, there is overlap between the types of conduct criminalised within the offences. That is why prior to the introduction of the new domestic abuse offence, some cases of domestic abuse that are now recorded and prosecuted under the domestic abuse offence would likely previously have been recorded and prosecuted using the stalking offence with a domestic abuse aggravation.
Official statistics for the year 2019-20 will be published in due course on the number of prosecutions and convictions for the new domestic abuse offence and for the stalking offence. This data will help show what impact, if any, there has been on use of the stalking offence since the introduction of the new domestic abuse offence.