Justice Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, March 16, 2021

Official Report 461KB pdf

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Justice Sub-Committee on Policing (Report Back)

Our next agenda item is feedback from the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing, which recently held meetings on 1 and 15 March, on Brexit issues and with the new chair of the Scottish Police Authority respectively. I invite John Finnie to deliver a verbal report, after which members can indicate in the usual way if they have any questions.

I will be brief. As ever, I will be happy to take questions.

As you have said, convener, on 1 March the sub-committee took evidence from Deputy Chief Constable Will Kerr and Assistant Chief Constable Patrick Campbell on Brexit and policing. That updated the evidence that we had heard at a previous meeting, in October last year, which took place prior to the end of the transition period on 31 December. It is fair to say that, across law enforcement, there is a willingness to make the current arrangements work. However, in some respects those are “sub-optimal”, to employ the term that was used.

The sub-committee’s final session took place yesterday, when we heard from the SPA’s new chair, Martyn Evans, and new chief executive, Lynn Brown, on its priorities for the future. We also covered a range of matters that had been undertaken at previous meetings, not least the scrutiny of issues such as the purchase of drones and body-worn cameras. In addition, we agreed a legacy report, which reflected a range of scrutiny that has taken place since 2016.

Further information on those meetings will be available in the relevant Official Reports.

Finally, the sub-committee recently agreed a draft report on the scrutiny of Police Scotland’s use of remotely piloted aircraft systems and body-worn cameras. That will be of great interest to members, not least in relation to the proposed proliferation and use of such equipment, and the implications of those. The report will be published later this week.

I am happy to take questions.

Thank you very much, John. No member has indicated that they have questions.

I wish to thank John Finnie, both formally and personally, for his outstanding work in chairing the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing. He and all the sub-committee’s members have made a tremendous contribution to oversight of the police and the SPA—particularly, as we have just heard, in relation to the introduction and use of new technologies. I wish John a very happy and fruitful retirement as he stands down from the Parliament in the next weeks. We will all miss his informed and reasoned contributions to our work. He has been a member of the Justice Committee for many years. John, thank you very much for your contributions.

Many thanks.

I do not know whether John wanted to come back in there, but I know that we are about to move into private session. Convener, in the absence of Rona Mackay, who I am sure would have been piping up at this stage, I want to put on the record my gratitude, and that of my committee colleagues, for your convenership of the Justice Committee. I know that it has not been a long tenure, but it has certainly covered some fairly thorny issues. The way in which you have assisted the committee and colleagues to navigate our way through those has been greatly appreciated. Thank you very much indeed. “Retirement” would not be the appropriate word; we wish you the best of luck in your own move towards the next phase and the next challenge.

It is very kind of you to say so, Liam. Thank you very much.

I also want to put on record my tribute to Margaret Mitchell, who has been deputy convener of the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing and a long-standing convener of the Justice Committee. I am sure that we all wish her well, too, and thank her for all her work on justice matters.

Finally—but most importantly of all, by way of thank yous—I take this opportunity, on behalf of all committee members, to thank Stephen Imrie, Katrina Venters and all their staff. I include the staff who work for the committee, the staff of the Scottish Parliament information centre and all the parliamentary staff who have supported me in the short time that I have been convener and who have supported the committee for a long time. This has been a tough, long session for them. We are massively in their debt. It is one that will never be repaid, although I have promised them lunch when that is legally permitted. I think that they will get a bit of a rest when the Parliament goes into recess. I hope that they will make the most of that, because I fear that they will be every bit as busy in session 6.

Thank you very much. I now close the public part of the meeting, and we will move into private session for the final time this session.

10:51 Meeting continued in private until 11:16.