A national strategy to prevent and address all forms of violence against women and girls has been renewed to build on recent progress.
Equally Safe, a joint strategy by Scottish Government and COSLA, was first published in 2014, and is backed by the Delivering Equally Safe Fund that is providing £19m per year to support 121 projects from 112 organisations.
One significant milestone reached, supported by the strategy’s aims, saw the Domestic Abuse Act passed by Parliament in 2018, which created a specific offence of domestic abuse that covers physical and psychological abuse as well as coercive and controlling behaviour.
Published during 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, the refreshed strategy is focussed on increasing collaboration across sectors to tackle the attitudes and values that result in violence against women and girls.
A delivery strategy will be published next Spring and will set out further actions to achieve that goal.