Under consideration PE2257: Expand Scottish domestic abuse law to protect adults from non-partner coercive control
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to strengthen Scotland’s domestic abuse and safeguarding framework so that protections extend to adults experiencing coercive control, psychological harm, isolation, or financial exploitation by non-partners, including carers, family members, friends, neighbours, guardians, attorneys, and others in positions of trust or power, ensuring equal protection under the law regardless of the perpetrator’s relationship to the victim.
Background information
Scotland’s current domestic abuse law protects people harmed by partners or ex-partners, but it does not cover adults who experience coercive control from non-partners such as carers, family members, guardians, or attorneys acting under Power of Attorney. Many adults rely on others for daily care, decision-making, or access to support, creating relationships of dependency where psychological harm, isolation, and financial control can occur. When concerns arise, they are often treated as private disputes or civil matters. In some cases, police cannot investigate the matter as domestic abuse solely because the perpetrator is not a partner or ex-partner, even where the same pattern of coercive control exists. Oversight is fragmented across multiple bodies, meaning no single agency assesses the full pattern of coercive control and harm. As a result, similar patterns of harm are treated differently depending solely on who the perpetrator is.
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