Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Act 2025

Reviewable events

12 Domestic homicide or suicide review

(1) In this Part, “domestic homicide or suicide review” means a review—

(a) of the circumstances in which a domestic abuse death, or a connected death of a young person, occurred,

(b) held with a view to identifying the lessons to be learned—

(i) from the death and the circumstances leading up to it, and

(ii) in cases where the remit of the review is expanded under section 20, also from certain events following the death.

(2) In this section, “person A” is a person who has, or appears to have, behaved in an abusive manner towards another person (“person B”) who, at the time of the behaviour, was—

(a) person A’s partner or ex-partner,

(b) person A’s child,

(c) a child of person A’s partner or ex-partner, or

(d) a young person, not falling within paragraphs (a) to (c), living in the same household as—

(i) person A, or

(ii) person A’s partner or ex-partner.

(3) A domestic abuse death is one where it is, or appears to be, the case that—

(a) persons A and B were partners or ex-partners and—

(i) person B has or may have died (otherwise than by suicide) as a result of person A’s abusive behaviour,

(ii) person B has died by suicide and person A’s abusive behaviour was or may have been a contributing factor to person B’s death, or

(iii) person B has killed person A, or

(b) person B’s relationship to person A at the time of the abusive behaviour was as mentioned in paragraph (b), (c) or (d) of subsection (2) and—

(i) person B has or may have died (otherwise than by suicide) as a result of person A’s abusive behaviour, and

(ii) at any point prior to the behaviour which resulted in person B’s death, there has been or appears to have been abusive behaviour between person A and any partner or ex-partner of person A (whether or not that partner or ex-partner had any relationship with person B, and whether the behaviour was by or directed at person A).

(4) But where person B’s relationship to person A at the time of the abusive behaviour was as mentioned in subsection (2)(d), a death is a domestic abuse death only if person B was a young person at the time of the death.

(5) A connected death of a young person is one where it is, or appears to be, the case that a young person has been killed as a result of—

(a) an incident which also resulted in a domestic abuse death, or

(b) abusive behaviour by person A towards person B which, had it led to person B’s death, would have resulted in a domestic abuse death.

(6) Where—

(a) there is to be a domestic homicide or suicide review in respect of a death, and

(b) the person whose behaviour resulted in, or appears to have resulted in, the death has died by suicide,

the review may also encompass the circumstances in which that suicide occurred.

(7) For the purposes of this section—

(a) a reference to behaviour which is abusive (however expressed) is to be construed in accordance with sections 2 and 3 of the Domestic Abuse (Protection) (Scotland) Act 2021,

(b) two persons are partners if they are—

(i) spouses or civil partners of each other, or

(ii) in an intimate personal relationship with each other,

and “ex-partner” is to be construed accordingly,

(c) a reference to the child of a person (“person P”) includes a reference to a person (“person C”) who is, or has at any time been, accepted by person P as person P’s child (whatever age person C was at the point of being so accepted),

(d) “young person” means a person—

(i) who is under the age of 18, or

(ii) who—

(A) is under the age of 26, and

(B) at some point has been looked after, within the meaning of section 17(6) or 17A(2) of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, by a local authority.

13 Power to modify matters in relation to reviews

(1) The Scottish Ministers may by regulations—

(a) make provision for the purposes of section 12 about what it means for abusive behaviour to result in or (in the case of suicide) be a contributing factor to a death,

(b) modify what relationship requires to exist or have existed between two people in order to give rise to a review for the purposes of section 12,

(c) modify the circumstances relating to abusive behaviour which may give rise to a review for the purposes of section 12 (including to encompass circumstances in which there is no death),

(d) modify the name of the review provided for by section 12 in consequence of a change made under paragraph (c),

(e) modify the basis on which a determination under section 19 is to be made (whether in consequence of a change made under a paragraph of this subsection or otherwise).

(2) Regulations under subsection (1) may modify any enactment (including this Act).