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Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service submission of 9 February 2022

PE1909/C - Remove the "gender-based crime" domestic abuse narrative and make it gender neutral and equal

Thank you for your letter dated 21st January 2022 seeking the views of COPFS on the proposed action within Petition PE1909.

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and Police Scotland Joint Protocol on Domestic Abuse defines domestic abuse as: “any form of physical, verbal, sexual, psychological or financial abuse which might amount to criminal conduct, and which takes place within the context of a relationship. The relationship will be between partners (married, cohabiting, civil partnership or otherwise) or ex-partners. The abuse can be committed in the home or elsewhere including online”.

As set out in the protocol, this definition includes abuse of male victims by female perpetrators and includes abuse of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people within relationships.

I enclose a link to the protocol for your information: Joint Protocol on Domestic Abuse.

The protocol acknowledges that domestic abuse as a form of gender-based violence is predominately perpetrated by men against women.

COPFS publishes official statistics on Domestic Abuse and Stalking Charges in Scotland. The official statistics for 2020-21 were published on 7 September 2021 and are available at the following link: Statistics (copfs.gov.uk)

In 2020-21, 28,975 (87%) of the charges reported to COPFS with a domestic abuse identifier were in cases where the accused was male.

I hope that the information set out in this letter is helpful to the Committee.