Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act 2025

Part 11 Enforcement of protective orders made outwith Scotland

109 Offences relating to protective orders made outwith Scotland

(1) A person commits an offence if the person knowingly and without reasonable excuse—

(a) does anything which the person is prohibited from doing by a relevant UK order, or

(b) fails to do something which the person is required to do by such an order.

(2) A person commits an offence if the person knowingly and without reasonable excuse aids, abets, counsels, procures or incites another person—

(a) to do anything the other person is prohibited from doing by a relevant UK order, or

(b) to fail to do something which the other person is required to do by such an order.

(3) A person commits an offence under this section only if the conduct or failure to act would have constituted an offence under the law of the country applicable to the relevant UK order concerned (an “equivalent offence”).

(4) A relevant UK order is—

(a) an order under section 42 of the Family Law Act 1996 (non-molestation order),

(b) an order under section 5A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (restraining order on acquittal),

(c) an order under article 20 of the Family Homes and Domestic Violence (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 (S.I. 1998/1071 (N.I. 6)) (non-molestation order),

(d) an order under section 2 or section 5 of the Stalking Protection Act 2019 (stalking protection order and interim stalking protection order),

(e) an order under section 360 of the Sentencing Act 2020 (restraining order),

(f) an order under section 8 or 11 of the Protection from Stalking Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 (stalking protection order and interim stalking protection order),

(g) any other order under the law of England and Wales or Northern Ireland which—

(i) appears to the Scottish Ministers to be intended to protect persons (including victims, witnesses or, as the case may be, family members of victims or witnesses) from physical or psychological harm (including fear, alarm and distress), and

(ii) is of a type specified in regulations made by the Scottish Ministers.

(5) Subjection to subsection (6), a person who commits an offence under this section is liable—

(a) on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum (or both),

(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years or a fine (or both).

(6) But no sentence may be imposed under subsection (5) if it would exceed the maximum penalty available, in relation to the equivalent offence, under the law of the country applicable to the relevant UK order concerned.

(7) The power of the Scottish Ministers to make regulations under subsection (4)(g)(ii) includes the power—

(a) to make different provision for different purposes,

(b) to make any incidental, supplementary, consequential, transitional, transitory or saving provision which they consider appropriate.

(8) Regulations under subsection (4)(g)(ii) are subject to the affirmative procedure.