Contents
- Attendance
- Decision on Taking Business in Private
- Civil Litigation (Expenses and Group Proceedings) (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1
- Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
- Justice Sub-Committee on Policing (Report Back)
Justice Sub-Committee on Policing (Report Back)
Agenda item 4 is feedback from the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing meeting on 26 October 2017. I refer members to paper 9, which is a note by the clerk, and I invite Mary Fee to provide feedback.
The Justice Sub-Committee on Policing met on 26 October, when it held a round-table evidence session on Police Scotland’s engagement with black and minority ethnic communities.
It was the sub-committee’s first consideration of the issue and it was very informative. We heard about many of the challenges facing BME communities and the police service. I will not cover them all today, as we do not have time. In summary, more work needs to be done on building trust; on the police service finding ways to engage with all parts of the BME communities to increase understanding and awareness of the issues that they face, not just their representatives; and on providing on-going diversity training for police officers, in particular new recruits, so that they can interact positively with BME communities. Finally, we discussed the negative impact on relationships due to the role of Police Scotland in Home Office dawn raids on houses and business premises to apprehend people suspected of being in Scotland illegally.
The sub-committee heard of the challenges that all public bodies face in relation to employing and retaining a diverse workforce. We were therefore pleased to hear about the work of Police Scotland’s positive action team to increase the number of minority ethnic entrants to the police workforce, and we look forward to seeing the evaluation of that initiative in due course.
The sub-committee is exploring how to take forward the suggestion from the Scottish Refugee Council that there should be a review of how Police Scotland and the Crown Office are working with the migrant community in Scotland.
The next meeting of the sub-committee is scheduled for Thursday 9 November, when it will take evidence on the police service’s budget planning for the next financial year. I am happy to answer any questions.
Do members have any questions or comments?
Not in relation to this—I have another point that I want to raise before we go into private session, if that is possible.
Yes, certainly.
It is about the Scottish Youth Parliament, which met last Friday and Saturday. Maurice Corry and I met members of the justice committee of the Scottish Youth Parliament; it was a very useful session. There was a lot of discussion about the issues that they are prioritising alongside the issues that we have been working on and the legislation that we have been scrutinising. A number of ideas emerged from that.
There was encouragement for members of the Scottish Youth Parliament to contact their MSPs and develop the relationship that way. The convener of the SYP justice committee is a constituent of Rona Mackay’s, so there is a link there, but we suggested that we might consider periodic meetings between the convener and the vice convener of that committee and this committee. Certainly, we could share our work programme with them so that they are sighted on what we are looking to do over the next four to six months. I made the offer—I hope not prematurely—that we would ensure that they are sighted on requests for evidence that we put out.
Colleagues may have other ideas, but I suggest those as a bare minimum for trying to enhance the way in which we work alongside the Scottish Youth Parliament.
I love the whole attitude of that, but it should be something that we discuss under our work programme and, as members all know, this committee, more than most, is under huge pressure to scrutinise bills—we have three on the go and a fourth on the way. There are real concerns about our ability to do that. However, it is an interesting suggestion and we will explore it further when we move into private session.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 7 November 2017, when our main business will be further consideration of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Repeal) (Scotland) Bill.
12:34 Meeting continued in private until 12:44.