25th September, 2024
By Lucy Ashton
The reviews will ensure relevant government departments and third sector agencies identify and agree on any areas for change so further deaths can be prevented.
The new bill also proposes measures to modernise the justice sector through greater use of digital technology.
It will make permanent a number of temporary measures put in place during the COVID pandemic which have improved how the criminal justice system works and which have support to become permanent measures.
This will include allowing more “virtual” attendance at criminal courts, electronic signing and sending of documents in criminal cases and increasing the maximum level of fiscal fines that can be imposed.
Justice Secretary Angela Constance, pictured right, said: “One death involving domestic abuse is one too many. While overall homicide rates are falling, there remains a significant number of victims who are killed by a partner or ex-partner, with the vast majority being women.
“Our plans for a new review process will ensure agencies across justice, health, social care, local government and the third sector are working together to identify what lessons can be learned following known or suspected domestic abuse deaths.
As the bill was published, an information board at a previously unmarked memorial cairn in Holyrood Park was installed by Historic Environment Scotland.
The cairn, built in memorial to domestic homicide victim Margaret Hall, who was murdered by her husband in 1720, was visited by Constance and those involved in developing the review model.
Kate Wallace, chief executive at Victim Support Scotland, said: “The Domestic Homicide and Suicide Review offers a unique opportunity for lessons to be learned from homicides and suicides within the context of domestic abuse in Scotland, so that we can help ensure these types of crimes can be prevented.
“We welcome the opportunity to bring forward legislation which will embed this entirely new approach for Scotland, and fully acknowledge the work and collective efforts required to address the unique issues inherent to this type of crime. We welcome these progressive measures, especially how victims will be considered within the legislation.”

Meanwhile, John Higgins admitted killing Amanda McAlear at a flat in Glasgow
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Published
A delivery driver who admitted murdering his partner after returning home from a football match has been jailed for 19 years.
John Higgins, 63, attacked Amanda McAlear at her flat in the Barmulloch area of Glasgow on 7 May 2022.
The 50-year-old’s body was found by her son when he visited her home the next day.
Judge Lady Haldane, left, reduced the minimum term of Higgins’ life sentence from 20 years due to his guilty plea.
Lady Haldane told the High Court in Glasgow she had read a number of emotional victim impact statements from Ms McAlear’s family describing how she is “evidently irreplaceable”.
The court previously heard Higgins had attended a match and gone to a pub before getting a taxi to Ms McAlear’s flat.
The exact details of the attack are unknown, but prosecutors stated he grabbed her and repeatedly punched her in the head and body before strangling her.