Reporting requirements
15.Section 12 requires the Scottish Ministers to keep the necessity of the provisions in Part 1 of the Act under review, and to report every two months on its assessment of that necessity, on the status of the provisions of the Act, and on the use of the powers in the Act.
16.The dates set out mean that the first reporting period for the provisions of the Act will be the same as the second reporting period for the provisions of the 2020 Act – 31 July 2020. This means that the reporting timetables for the 2020 Act and the Act can be operated together, and at the same time.
17.Section 13 requires the Scottish Ministers, when undertaking reviews and reporting on each review under the Act, to take into account, where relevant, available information from the Scottish Police Authority or Police Scotland about the nature and number of incidents of domestic abuse during each reporting period. The information to be taken into account is information received by the Scottish Ministers from the Scottish Police Authority or Police Scotland or information placed in the public domain by the Scottish Police Authority or Police Scotland.
18.Subsections (2) and (3) of section 13 amend the 2020 Act to make corresponding provision for the Scottish Ministers to take account of available information from the Scottish Police Authority or Police Scotland about the nature and number of incidents of domestic abuse during each reporting period.
19.Section 14 requires the Scottish Ministers to undertake a review of SSIs which have been made by the Scottish Ministers where the main purpose is to make provision for a reason relating to coronavirus, and to report on this review to Parliament.
20.Subsection (6) exempts SSIs made under this Act, the 2020 Act and the UK Act from this reporting requirement, on the basis that for each of those Acts they are already being reported on.
21.The reporting obligation covers both factual matters (such as parliamentary procedure used; the details of the powers used to make the SSIs; period of effect) as well as requiring a statement from Ministers that they are ‘satisfied’ with the status of individual SSIs.