Ending conversion practices in Scotland: consultation summary

Part 6: The Criminal Law: Overview

35. We believe that the criminal law should be used to address conversion practices which are harmful, and which are not adequately addressed under existing law.

Existing criminal law

36. Some forms of conversion practices will already fall within existing criminal offences, such as assault, including sexual assault, threatening and abusive behaviour and stalking. Our analysis has shown that not all types of conversion practices can be addressed by existing offences.

New criminal offences relating to conversion practices

37. Our proposal is to create new criminal offences to address a gap in the law relating to harmful conversion practices, protect individuals from that harm, and provide criminal penalties when such conduct has occurred. The new criminal offences will address three forms of conversion practices: the provision of a service; a coercive course of behaviour; and taking someone out of Scotland for conversion practices.