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The workshop included representatives from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, Police Scotland, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, the Scottish Legal Aid Board, Scottish Women’s Aid, Abused Men in Scotland, the Scottish Law Commission and Advocacy Support Safety Information Services Together—ASSIST—Scotland.

In relation to part 1 of the 2001 act, a key point that was identified in the workshop was that the current timescale between a domestic abuse protection notice being issued and a court application being made for a domestic abuse protection order was too short. The duration period of three months for a DAPO was not considered to be long enough and presents resource challenges. It is a very short timescale for victims to engage with other support services while the DAPO is in place.

There are issues with operational capability, practicalities around timescales and reporting, and the need to give individuals sufficient time to obtain legal representation. Cross-border powers relating to how DAPOs will operate in practice will require further liaison with other jurisdictions, given that this is an area that will be new to all. There is a need for children’s views to be obtained. Consideration needs to be given to who will gather those views and what specific training they will need, as well as to what the geographical constraints and timescales might be. A duty of care to victims, perpetrators and families was also identified as an area of concern.

Those were the key issues that were raised in March’s workshop.

At the time, the legislation was intended as an exceptional tool to be used in situations in which no other protections were available. However, it became clear from speaking to operational agencies and stakeholders during implementation planning that the expected volume of new notices and orders that would arise under the 2021 act would lead to significant operational challenges.

I will perhaps ask Jeff Gibbons to speak on that, because he has been involved historically—I appreciate that that was probably before our time. The main aim of the act was to get the protections in place, but the challenge was going to be how it would work operationally.

Absolutely. We support ADR, including mediation, in child contact centres. The Scottish Government already provides funding for Relationships Scotland and its network to provide family mediation services.

We have not yet implemented the two ADR provisions in the 2020 act. Section 23, which is on funding ADR in child contact and residence cases, will require a good deal of thought. Given other pressures, section 23 has not been a priority, but we will implement that in time. Section 24 provides for a pilot scheme for information meetings on alternative dispute resolution. That is more of a priority, and lessons from the pilot scheme will inform how we do the work on section 23. However, there is still a fair bit of work to be done in relation to section 24.

I will move on to your question on child advocacy. I think that an amendment on that was introduced before we were all in our current roles. That provision represents a major investment, and it will provide significant support for children who are at the centre of child contact and residence cases. We are discussing with key bodies what they would like to see, and there are a number of points to consider. For example, what exactly should the role be? We assume that it should involve explaining to the child what the process involves and helping them to give their views as required.

Another point to consider is how to ensure that the role does not cut across the role of any trusted adult or other support services that the child has. We also need to consider how to ensure that the advocate is fully trained, how to provide children with information on the service and how many cases an advocate can realistically take on. We need to work with other adults who might be involved in a case, such as the parents; support workers; people from third sector bodies that provide legal or practical support; any curator appointed by the court; and any child welfare reporter appointed by the court. Work is on-going, and we will consider those matters as we make progress on that area. It is quite complex and there is a lot of work to do.

Absolutely. That is vital. I do not know whether you are aware of the work that the Scottish Law Commission is currently doing, too.

Thank you.

Thank you for the invitation to provide an update on the progress with implementation of part 2 of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021. I understand the committee’s concerns that the legislation has not yet been implemented. As we know, domestic abuse is a leading cause of women’s homelessness in Scotland, and social landlords have a vital role to play in keeping tenants safe.

Part 2 of the 2021 act provides social landlords with a new ground to apply to the court for an order that, if granted, will have the effect of enabling the landlord to transfer a tenancy to a victim. That will allow landlords, rather than the victims themselves, to take action in court to transfer the tenancy.

Implementation of part 2 of the 2021 act has taken longer than anticipated and a number of challenges have been identified that we are working through with partner organisations in order to allow the provisions to operate as intended. We have worked closely with the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service on the development of appropriate court rules and changes to court forms.

We have also worked with key stakeholders to develop the secondary legislation that is needed to bring the provisions into force, with the necessary Scottish statutory instruments prepared to support final implementation.

Earlier this year, detailed statutory guidance for social landlords on the use of the new provisions was produced, and the draft was shared with key stakeholders for their views. The feedback has been taken on board and an updated document is being produced. Sharing the draft guidance also brought out further concerns from Police Scotland on information sharing with social landlords, and we are working to find a solution to the issues raised.

We are committed to ensuring that the measures are implemented as intended, and the Government will continue to work towards bringing part 2 of the 2021 act into force in December 2025, although the need to update court rules and resolve the concerns related to information sharing that were raised by the police might affect the timetable.

I will stop there, convener, to let members ask questions.

The legislative process took place at pace because it was during Covid. We were trying to provide for protection orders, and we are now dealing with the aftermath. Stage 3 amendments on which background work might not have been done in relation to their operation might have been agreed to. That can add delays to implementation of provisions, because we need to do work relating to amendments that were agreed to. There are lots of lessons to be learned. I do not know whether Jeff Gibbons wants to add anything.

I will ask Simon Stockwell to respond. There is still a lot of work to be done in relation to the 2020 act, as we still have to work through the amendments that I referred to. Simon, if we assume that the act is a priority for the next Government, what timescale do you realistically envisage for implementing the child welfare reporters register, for example?

I thank Ms McNair for that question. I know that the committee recently finished its evidence taking on civil legal aid, and I look forward to your report and your recommendations from that.

I think that there is scope for consideration of that suggestion, but as I said in a previous evidence session, I have some concerns about removing means testing in this area. There would be a cost to the public purse, and to ensure equality, we might need to automatically give legal aid to the defender—the person who is alleged to have caused harm—as well as to the applicant. It is quite a complex area and I am open to suggestions on how we move forward. That is worth considering.

I am grateful to have the opportunity to outline our approach to implementation of the Children (Scotland) Act 2020. I set out our plans in my letter of 11 March to you, convener. We remain committed to implementing the 2020 act in full.

To date, the Scottish Government has made three sets of commencement regulations in relation to the 2020 act. The most recent set will commence provisions to amend requirements when a parent or another person with parental responsibilities and rights is making a major decision about a child’s life. Those provisions will commence on 21 September this year. Those regulations also commenced, as of two days ago, provisions that require a court, when considering a child’s welfare in a range of proceedings, to consider whether any delay in those proceedings would negatively affect the child.

We will also lay SSIs in September this year to bring in the regulation of child contact centres. Laying instruments as soon as we can will provide clarity on how regulation will work.

We will lay a further commencement SSI later this year, in October. It will cover a number of areas, including the remainder of section 1 of the 2020 act, on the views of children in court cases in areas such as child contact; sections 2 and 3, on views of children in relation to adoption and permanence proceedings and children’s hearings proceedings; section 16, on factors for the courts to consider before making an order on matters such as child contact and residence; section 18, on the duty on the courts to consider the child’s best interests when allowing access to information; and section 30(2), on delay in relation to child contact and residence cases.

There is still more work to do. For example, the planned register of child welfare reporters is a key provision of the 2020 act. Child welfare reporters can play a key role in contact and residence cases—they provide reports to the sheriff who is hearing the case and they interview key people, including the child who will be at the centre of the case. We have re-established the child welfare reporter working group, which will look back at changes that were made previously and look forward to the implementation of the register.

I hope that that brief introduction reassures the committee that implementation of the 2020 act is taking place and is continuing and that we recognise the need to implement legislation. The 2020 act is particularly important, given that it is about children. I am happy to answer any questions.

I will ask Simon Stockwell to confirm this, but I understand that we will lay the SSIs that I just referred to—in relation to sections 1, 2, 3, 16, 18 and 30—in October this year and that the provisions will come into effect in October 2026. However, the lead-in time for the child contact centre SSIs will be a bit longer, at 18 months.