Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton and justice spokesperson Yi-pei Chou Turvey.
by Bill Heaney
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton and party justice spokesperson Yi-pei Chou Turvey have written to First Minister John Swinney to ask when the Scottish Government will finally implement domestic abuse protections, which are still not in force despite being passed by parliament five years ago.
Pressing John Swinney at First Minister’s Questions over a sharp rise in sexual crime, Alex Cole-Hamilton urged the Scottish Government to end their delays in implementing key domestic abuse protections.
Scottish Liberal Democrats have repeatedly criticised the delayed implementation of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021.
These delays mean that Domestic Abuse Protection Notices (DAPNs) and Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs) have still not been rolled out.
These measures would give the police and courts the powers to remove a domestic abuser from the home of any person at risk immediately following an incident.
The Scottish Women’s Rights Centre has warned that delays to implementation mean victims and their children “remain at serious risk of further abuse and harm”.
The joint letter from Alex Cole-Hamilton and Yi-pei Chou Turvey to the First Minister is as follows:
Dear John,
We are writing to you following last week’s session of First Minister’s Questions, during which Alex raised with you the published figures for recorded crime in Scotland during 2025-26.
As you will be aware, sexual crime is now at its highest level since 1971. Separately, domestic abuse crimes rose by 23% compared to the previous year, increasing from 2,573 to 3,170. Despite the growing prevalence of these crimes, however, important domestic abuse protections passed by the Scottish Parliament five years ago are still not in place.
To date, the Scottish Government has not stated when Part 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021will fully come into force. This delay means that domestic abuse victims across Scotland are being denied emergency protections contained within this part of the Act, namely, Domestic Abuse Protection Notices (DAPNs) and Domestic Abuse Protection Orders (DAPOs).
A DAPN gives police the powers to remove a domestic abuser from a victim’s home immediately after an incident and ahead of applying to the courts for a DAPO, which can, effectively, extend the prohibitions in a DAPN.
In their submission to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee on the Non-implementation of Acts of the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Women’s Rights Centre described DAPNs and DAPOs as “necessary for the interim protection of victims/survivors and specifically in bridging the gap for protection to remove the perpetrator from the family home”. They state that such protections “will support victims/ survivors to remain in the family home and may reduce the economic burden which follows separation in abuse situations”.
A further submission from Scottish Women’s Aid to the Committee states that these protections would provide the “police with an immediate, short-term power designed to remove the perpetrators of domestic abuse from the family home”. They state that it represents “a paradigm shift in approaches to protecting women and children experiencing domestic abuse and offering them options that included barring a perpetrator from the home- as opposed to women and children being forced to leave their home and move to refuge, or temporary accommodation and the homelessness system.”
Indeed, DAPNs and DAPOs were agreed by parliament as a way of resolving the gaps that exist for victims whose abuse does not result in a recording of a crime, which can be common in cases of domestic abuse. These victims currently rely on protections available in civil law, which can be very difficult to obtain due to factors including the legal aid crisis and strict tests which govern their eligibility. For as long as DAPNs and DAPOs are not in force, however, victims are still being denied access to the protections they desperately need.
While we appreciate that operational and financial challenges may be at play in the reasons for non-implementation, we cannot accept that this is a reasonable justification for the persistence of delays, especially when the Scottish Parliament passed this Act five years ago. We worry that such delays only serve to give victims very little confidence in laws designed to protect them.
With violence against women and girls now disturbingly prevalent across the country, the Scottish Government must take practical steps to put robust protections in place.
Will you, therefore, set out a clear timeline for bringing DAPNS and DAPOs into effect, ensuring that victims no longer live in fear and uncertainty about the risk of further abuse?
Yours sincerely,
Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP & Yi-pei Chou Turvey MSP