Chamber and committees

Who should the Scottish Government be talking to? You have given some compelling evidence, as an individual who has experienced trauma, but who else should the Scottish Government try to embrace to capture the real situation and circumstances out there?

I thank the petitioner for her evidence and for her courage in saying what she has said today.

You have talked about failures such as being abandoned and being let down by the whole process, and you want to see changes and a review. The Scottish Government has already put in place some measures that you are probably well aware of. We have talked about suicide prevention, and there is also the final report of the Scottish mental health law review. You have probably seen all of those things.

What else would you like to see? You have talked today about some of the experiences of individuals. As we know, men seem to make up a much larger percentage of those who experience suicide situations and circumstances. You have touched on what you would like the review to deal with. I want to go back over where you think the gaps are, and where you would want to see the review progressing.

As you have said, it has been quite a journey, but a very informative one. It is good that a reasonably large number of local authorities have come back to us to indicate where they stand and what the situation is.

It is appropriate that we now write to the Scottish Government to highlight the evidence that we have received and to set out recommendations for addressing the issues raised in the petition. I suggest that we also write to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee and the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee to share the evidence and our recommendations.

Members can clarify that with the committee clerks, who can put the information together. As I said, we have all been involved in what has been a very in-depth process, and it has been really quite successful. As a committee member, I have certainly learned a lot more about the whole issue, and it is vitally important that we can now give the evidence to the Scottish Government to highlight the issues that we have found.

You have all identified that the victim in the process is the person who has to go through the trauma again when they go to court. They are being abused in another way, because for them the whole situation re-emerges. How that is managed and how the person is supported is another big issue that we need to think about.

You have identified that training requires to take place, but at the same time, the focus should be on making sure that the victim gets the support that she requires from the agencies that provide such support. We are hearing that, at times, women do not have confidence in what is happening with the police. They do not have that confidence because they feel that they will have to go through the trauma again, which prevents them from dealing with the situation. They then end up staying in the relationship because they feel that they cannot get out of it or because they are bound, financially, and the coercive behaviour continues.

Yes, absolutely.

We are now at the stage that, under standing order 17.5, the petition can be closed, on the basis that NatureScot routinely issues licence refusals, and that it has stated that its approach

“is always to explain to the applicants the reasons for the refusals against the relevant legal tests”,

which can include the objectives.

Also, a conservation objective would not apply to every licensing refusal, and therefore setting a mandatory requirement for NatureScot to include that in every refusal would not be appropriate.? For those reasons, I think that the petition should be closed under standing order 17.5.

I thank the witnesses for their evidence so far. You have touched on underreporting and said that the victim is the most important person. When Nicola Murray gave evidence, she spoke about the difficulties in reporting in relation to the co-operation that is required between the police and the individual who has been abused. She also talked about the knock-on effects. We know that Police Scotland has looked at domestic abuse and views tackling it as a priority, but she explained that more training and more support are required. She felt that the police were not able to deal with coercive behaviour as well as they should. When someone who has been abused tries to progress their case, they have to go to the first authority—the police—before there are court proceedings, and she, as a victim, identified a gap in that regard. As I said, Police Scotland has a role in managing such situations and supporting victims. As Mr Tidy knows, the victim is the most important person—we acknowledge that—but that might not always be the case when it comes to how they are managed and processed by the authorities that are there to protect and support them. It would be useful to hear the witnesses’ views on that.

You have summarised where we are with the petition, which as you have said has been going for some time now. However, in light of the petitioners’ concerns, we should write to the Scottish Government and seek information on what impact the capital spending review will have on the funding of the A83 Rest and Be Thankful project and whether the slowdown in funding for the road improvement project is likely to have an impact on the seven to 10-year timescale for the solution for the route to be put in place.

The community still wants a public inquiry to investigate the financial management of the project and to seek a permanent solution for the route, but that is a bigger issue for us to deal with at this stage.

Those are my recommendations, but I am open to other members’ views on the topic.

We should write to the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills to seek an update on the development of the next BSL plan and explore how BSL national qualifications could be developed. In writing to the cabinet secretary, the committee might wish to highlight the development of general certificates of secondary education in BSL in other parts of the United Kingdom; ask what steps the Scottish Government is taking to ensure that schools have the opportunity to teach BSL from primary 1 to higher and advanced higher levels; and seek information on what further considerations the Scottish Government has given to affording BSL qualifications that are equivalent with other spoken languages as part of the uptake of BSL qualifications.

I am delighted that we have had such a robust outcome so far, but it is important that we now seek further information. We should write to the Minister for Transport to find out about the process for appointments to the board of David MacBrayne Group and what work is being done to encourage candidates from communities. We can also ask for an update on the communities’ communication with ministers and with Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd with regard to the proposals that the petition sets out.