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

28 Reports on case reviews: publication and sharing

(1) The review oversight committee—

(a) may publish a report, or part of a report, approved under section 27(5) only with the consent of the Lord Advocate, but

(b) must publish (in the report or otherwise) such information as it considers appropriate about the recommendations made in the report.

(2) The chair of the review oversight committee must take all reasonable steps to ensure that a published report does not identify, or include information which would or might allow the identification of—

(a) the person whose death is the subject of the review, or who is person A or person B for the purpose of section 12 in relation to the death in question,

(b) any individual (including a deceased individual) who—

(i) is or was connected with a person mentioned in paragraph (a) (for example, as a family member, friend or acquaintance), or

(ii) was involved in events which were examined by the review.

(3) The chair of the review oversight committee and the Scottish Ministers may each share reports, or parts of reports, approved under section 27(5) with any person with whom the chair or, as the case may be, Ministers consider it appropriate to share them for the purpose of promoting the learning of lessons with a view to—

(a) safeguarding those affected by abusive domestic behaviour, or

(b) promoting the wellbeing of victims of abusive domestic behaviour.

(4) Where a report approved under section 27(5) contains material which has not been published under subsection (1)—

(a) the taking of a decision under subsection (3) as to whether to share the report (or any part of it) and, if so, the sharing of it must be carried out in accordance with the protocol produced under section 24,

(b) the person sharing the report (or the part of the report) may redact or anonymise material as the person considers appropriate, and

(c) the person with whom the report (or the part of the report) is shared may not share any unpublished material within it with any other person and must keep the content of that material confidential.

(5) In subsection (3), “abusive domestic behaviour” means abusive behaviour by person A towards person B, within the meaning of section 12(2).