This week, shocking figures on domestic abuse were released, which indicated that the number of cases reported to Police Scotland had risen by 3 per cent and equalled almost 64,000 cases—that is one incident every 10 minutes. Behind every number is a terrible real life story. Next week marks the beginning of the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. However, those latest horrific statistics show that we are moving backwards, not forwards. When will the Scottish Government stand with survivors and take concrete action to eliminate domestic abuse by supporting my proposed domestic abuse (prevention) (Scotland) bill, which will protect victims of domestic abuse and has been backed by organisations and survivors?

The Government is engaging with Pam Gosal on her bill. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs had a productive meeting with her on 25 September, and we will consider full details when we have further detail on the component parts of the bill.

On Pam Gosal’s comments about the Government’s approach to domestic abuse, I remind Parliament that the Government introduced—and Parliament supported—the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, which was implemented in the subsequent year. That act strengthened the legal protection for victims of domestic abuse and significantly increased the constraints on any perpetrators of domestic abuse.

The figures to which Pam Gosal referred are unacceptable, but they indicate that more individuals are coming forward to report offences and to ensure that the perpetrators of domestic violence are brought to account. Fundamentally, men’s behaviour must change, and the Government will put in place the legislative framework to enable that to be the case. Domestic violence must come to an end, and that will happen only when the behaviour of men changes.