Current Petitions

The next petition for consideration is PE496, from Mr George McAulay. The petition concerns the Scottish Executive's handling of its recent domestic abuse advertising strategy. We have written to the Executive on the matter, which has replied with assurances that the words "constant threat", which were used in the advertising, have been removed from all current campaign material and will not appear in any future press adverts or posters. The Executive then outlines why it used the strategy in question.The Executive appears to believe that the campaign material that contains the words "constant threat" is unlikely still to be in circulation. Such material was distributed on a very small scale prior to the Advertising Standards Authority's ruling. Multi-agency partnerships that were in receipt of the press packs have been asked to distribute the revised text when using any of the material in future. We may want to consider whether the small number of schools and other organisations that have received the original videos or posters should be informed of the Advertising Standards Authority's ruling and requested to ensure that the revised text is used in future.The Executive seems to be confident that the current figures for the proportion of male victims of domestic abuse are accurate, taking into account the probability of underreporting. The Executive appears to believe that targeting resources at female victims of domestic abuse is justified, given the scale of the problem.It is suggested that we agree to copy the Executive responses to the petitioner and ask the Executive to ensure that all schools and organisations to which the original campaign material was distributed are advised of the ASA ruling and asked to use the revised text in future. We should thereafter take no further action on the petition.

Would you like us to ask the Executive why it has not withdrawn the videos that have been sent out and, if it does not intend to withdraw them, what practical steps it is taking to ensure that the revised text is used?

Does anyone object to that suggestion?

We could tell the Executive that the majority view of the committee is that the videos should be withdrawn, given that only a small number of them have been distributed. The Executive might regard such a step as impractical and if so, we should ask it why. We should also ask it to indicate what practical steps it has taken to ensure that the revised text is used on all occasions. Is that agreed?Members indicated agreement.