IT has been a momentous week in the Scottish Parliament with two new pieces of legislation being passed — the Gender Representation on Public Boards (Scotland) Bill and the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill.

The former of these two bills requires all public bodies to have gender-balanced boards by 2022, meaning they must ensure at least 50 per cent of board members are women.

This will apply to colleges, universities and some public bodies including health boards, enterprise agencies, the Scottish Police Authority and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill goes further to protect victims of domestic abuse by criminalising psychological domestic abuse, such as coercive and controlling behaviour, as well as physical violence.

These bills are evidence of Scotland’s progress on gender equality, and that this parliament is dedicated to protecting those affected by emotional abuse who, under previous laws, have struggled to get justice against their abusers due to the difficulties in prosecuting psychological abuse cases.

However, that will all change now and means that all domestic abuse victims can get the justice they deserve.

Stage one of the proposed 2018/19 Scottish budget was also passed, which I fully support.

Finance Secretary Derek Mackay MSP brought new budget proposals to the chamber which included an additional £159.5m for local government — resulting in a further £2.42m for Inverclyde.

Ironically, Labour MSP Neil Bibby and Tory MSP Jamie Greene, who have both repeatedly asked the Scottish Government to give Inverclyde more money, voted against Mr Mackay’s proposals.

It’s clear then that both Labour and the Tories still do not have my constituents’ interests at heart, and I’m proud that the SNP have delivered more funds for Inverclyde.