Confidentiality statement

Is Scotland’s Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline confidential?

The helpline service is confidential. We take confidentiality seriously because we understand that this is important for you to feel safe to speak.

We would only share information about you with someone else without your consent in exceptional situations, such as:

If we believe a child or an adult at risk is at risk of harm, we may need to contact other agencies to get help for them.
If we believe that someone is in immediate danger and that there is a potentially life-threatening situation, we may also need to share information to try to get help for them.
If we receive a court order or are required by law to share information, we will have to do so.
If we receive information about acts of terrorism, bomb warnings, or other threats to life, we may need to share this information to help keep people safe.
If you threaten the safety of our staff or the delivery of our service, we may need to take action to protect ourselves and others.

If you are an adult and you are feeling suicidal, you can speak to us confidentially about this. We would only tell someone else to try to get help for you if you give us your consent, unless we believe you don't have the capacity to make decisions for yourself, or if your suicide plan would endanger the lives of others or place a child or vulnerable adult at risk.

Even in these exceptional situations when we may decide to share information without your consent, we would only be able to do that if we have enough information.

You can decide what information you share with us. You don’t have to tell us your name or any other identifying information if you would prefer to remain anonymous.

However, you should be aware that if you contact us by phone, your number will be displayed on our phone unless you withhold it. If you contact us by email, we will be able to see your email address, and if you contact us by web chat, we will be able to see your IP address. By SMS or WhatsApp, your number is also shown to us. This information will be kept confidential, but we might use it if one of the exceptional situations listed above comes up. If you prefer to remain totally anonymous we suggest that you withhold your phone number to call us or set up another email account that does not include your name.

You can find more information about the information we keep about you in our Privacy Notice.