Question reference: S5W-34682
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 20 January 2021
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Current status: Answered by Christina McKelvie on 27 January 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government by what date it expects further engagement to take place following the publication of the consultation, Improving Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Interventions for Victims of Domestic Abuse, as outlined in the next steps action 3e, in light of the latest Victims' Taskforce workplan referencing the date as "end 2019", which had already passed by the time of publication.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to tackling violence against women and girls through Equally Safe, our co-owned strategy with COSLA. This strategy identifies effective multi-agency risk assessment processes as a key component in addressing violence against women and girls in Scotland.
At the end of 2019, we published our analysis of responses to the Improving Multi-Agency Risk Assessment and Interventions for Victims of Domestic Abuse consultation. Unfortunately, due to the global pandemic and the reprioritisation of work to meet immediate needs arising from COVID, work in this area was paused until November 2020 when officials held a virtual workshop with stakeholders from across the VAWG sector to help prioritise key themes and outputs from the consultation and inform our next steps.
Following on from this discussion, officials will be undertaking a series of virtual mini work-shops or ‘deep dives’ into these key areas and will convene a short life advisory group comprised of key stakeholders to monitor progress.