Equally Safe delivery plan: progress report

Deliverable 1

1. We will work with the Addressing Violence Against Minority Ethnic Women and Girls Network to ensure our work reflects the needs of minority ethnic women

Delivery plan actions to help meet this deliverable:

1.1 We will implement the FGM (Protection and Guidance) Act.

1.2 We will develop an approach to address honour based abuse, including consideration of a statutory definition.

1.3 We will develop an approach to address extended family abuse, including the consideration of legislation.

1.4 We will mitigate the challenges associated with No Recourse for Public Funds conditions and the Illegal Migration Act within devolved competence.

Overview

Scottish Government policy officials are working closely with stakeholders to ensure the effective implementation of the Female Genital Mutilation (Protection and Guidance) (Scotland) Act 2020, which makes provisions for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) protection orders. This includes work in three key areas: court rules, statutory guidance, and training and awareness raising.

Officials have been engaging with the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, Criminal Court Rules Council, and the Scottish Civil Justice Council to consider the required court rules, a type of secondary legislation which sets out the practice and procedures of the courts. To date, papers have been sent to the relevant Rules Councils for their consideration of the proposed court rules. Each request included an explanation of the Scottish Government’s intention that the Act should, if possible, be commenced by the end of 2026. A multi-agency Working Group to support the development of Statutory Guidance, bringing together representatives from Police Scotland, local authorities, health representatives and specialist third sector organisations, has also reviewed our first draft of the statutory guidance on FGM protection orders. This is now with the wider Addressing Violence Against Minority Ethnic Women and Girls Network for further consideration, and implementation by the end of 2026 remains on track.

To support the development of a Scottish approach to addressing honour based abuse (HBA), officials have developed a clear and robust draft policy definition to ensure professionals involved in responding to survivors share a consistent understanding of what HBA is. This is crucial because stakeholders have raised that when the complexity and nuances of HBA are not fully understood, minority ethnic women can be overlooked by the Police and other services. Building on this work, officials are now developing a policy definition of extended family abuse.

Case study: The development of an honour based abuse policy definition

To begin with, we carried out a literature review to explore existing definitions and understandings of HBA. Diving into the academic debate was initially overwhelming – there were so many conflicting viewpoints that, at times, it felt like reaching a shared understanding might be impossible. However, this process was really valuable as it highlighted the key themes and challenges that we needed to explore further.

One of the most important parts of this work was engaging with specialist minority ethnic VAWG organisations and women in the community. Conversations with specialist organisations, who shared their invaluable expertise and experience, grounded the work in reality and strengthened our understanding of the barriers and challenges survivors face.

Speaking directly with women in the community about their experiences also reinforced why this work was so important. Their perspectives, reflections and critique were essential in shaping our draft definition.

To test the draft policy definition and shape our next steps, we engaged with mainstream services, including Social Work Scotland, Police Scotland, NHS Scotland and local authorities. This included a workshop with our justice partners, including Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service and Community Justice Scotland. During this workshop, there were very detailed and technical conversations about language, which were extremely constructive and enabled us to refine the wording so that it can be used confidently across different settings.

We are now confident that we have a strong draft policy definition of HBA that reflects the realities of women in Scotland. This is an exciting milestone because it will provide a solid foundation for what comes next. We look forward to continuing to work with partners to explore how the definition can be applied in practice across services, and how it can support better responses for survivors.

Reflections from Julia Ng, VAWG Policy Official, Scottish Government

Draft policy definition of honour based abuse

Honour based abuse describes a range of violent incidents or patterns of abuse committed against a person, mainly women and girls, due to the perception that they have brought, or may bring, dishonour or shame to their family or community. It includes a range of harms including physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and killings.

Perpetrators of honour based abuse can include intimate partners, family members and members of the community, who may act alone, or more commonly, collectively to carry out the abuse. They perpetrate honour based abuse in order to maintain or ‘restore’ perceived social or cultural norms related to honour within their family or community, ultimately preserving a patriarchal system.

Honour based abuse is not exclusive to any specific racial or religious group, but perpetrated by a minority of individuals within diverse communities. Nonetheless, we recognise that minority ethnic women and girls in Scotland are disproportionately affected by honour based abuse.