Justice Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Official Report 455KB pdf

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Justice Sub-Committee on Policing (Report Back)

Item 4 is feedback from the recent meeting of the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing. Following the report, there will be an opportunity for brief comments or questions. I refer members to paper 2, which is a note by the clerk. I invite John Finnie to provide feedback.

As the convener said, the committee has a feedback note at paper 2. The sub-committee met on 9 May and took evidence from Police Scotland and the Scottish Police Authority on their responses to the sub-committee’s report on the proposal to introduce cyberkiosks for use by front-line officers.

Police Scotland informed the sub-committee that it is satisfied that it has the legal basis to introduce the use of cyberkiosks, based on advice from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the legal opinion that it sought from Murdo MacLeod QC. However, it also agreed that legal clarity would be welcome. The SPA board is to consider a paper on cyberkiosks and the legal opinion at its meeting on 22 May. The external reference group and stakeholder group are to consider the draft data protection impact assessment and equality and human rights impact assessment, along with other documents, on 11 June. Following these meetings, it is Police Scotland’s intention to deploy cyberkiosks in late summer.

The next meeting of the sub-committee will be on Thursday 30 May, when it will take evidence on the Scottish Government’s capital funding provision to Police Scotland. The sub-committee will hear from witnesses representing police officers and staff. The sub-committee will return to the issue of cyberkiosks when it takes evidence from the Cabinet Secretary for Justice at its final meeting before the summer recess on 13 June. That session will focus on the Scottish Government’s response to the sub-committee’s report on cyberkiosks.

I am happy to take any questions.

As John Finnie said, the session was useful. We struggled to cover the ground, even in an extended session, and have followed up a number of questions, both with Police Scotland and with the SPA, particularly about the legal advice that John Finnie referred to. Although we have come a long way in pushing Police Scotland to a better place on the matter, questions remain that require answers.

It was telling that, when pressed, Police Scotland and the chair of the SPA acknowledged that much of the legal framework in this respect is from the analogue age, and the point about trying to keep pace with the development of technology as well as dealing with the pressures on the police in combating cybercrime and other crime with a cyber element was very well made. Both seemed to be encouraging a review of the legislation in this area to find a framework that would be more fit for purpose with regard to the balance that needs to be struck between, on the one hand, combating crime and, on the other, acknowledging the human and other rights that are caught up in this and which have very much been part of the sub-committee’s deliberations.

I certainly found the session very useful, and I think that the session with the cabinet secretary will only extend things.

Substantial progress has been made since we first looked at this issue, and we are now in a much better place to cope with what is an ever-moving and changing set of circumstances that the law has to keep up with.

The witnesses seemed very pleased with the sub-committee’s work on the matter, which they had found very helpful and constructive. Indeed, they seemed very happy to co-operate with the sub-committee.

As there no other comments, we move to item 5, which is a discussion in private of correspondence that we have received from the Finance and Constitution Committee.

10:46 Meeting continued in private until 11:16.