Our rapporteur to the Scotland’s national action plan—SNAP—process, John Finnie, recently met Professor Alan Miller, chair of the SNAP leadership panel. I ask John to report back on the issues that were raised at that meeting.
On 18 June, I met Professor Alan Miller. I am grateful to Neil Stewart, a clerk, for coming along and bringing pen and paper with him, which was helpful.
Can he use pen and paper?
Yes, indeed.
That is on the record now.
Professor Miller, who chairs the SNAP panel, welcomed the engagement with the committee. He was aware that I would report back this month.
The SNAP leadership panel will meet on 7 October, when it will consider a draft annual report. It was agreed that I would meet Professor Miller shortly after that. The report is likely to be published at the end of October.
Professor Miller advised that there would be a suite of activities in the lead-up to 10 December—international human rights day—including the committee’s human rights debate, which has been agreed. It was noted that, in advance of the debate, the committee might find an informal briefing from the Scottish Human Rights Commission on international treaty obligations helpful and that there might be merit in inviting the Justice Sub-Committee on Policing and other committees along to such a briefing.
Professor Miller provided an outline of the action plan. Five action groups are measuring the outcomes from public bodies and putting in plans for implementation. Good progress is being made, and there is no doubt that Scotland’s position is viewed favourably internationally and that Scotland is ahead of the pack on human rights.
We discussed existing areas of work into which the committee and the sub-committee might wish to consider incorporating human rights. Examples that were suggested included stop and search, the arming of officers and women offenders. Our work constantly relates indirectly to human rights; the first item today was about that. Other relevant areas are a possible time-bar issue in the proposed damages bill in respect of historic child abuse and consideration of the proposed apologies (Scotland) bill, should that bill be referred to the committee.
Professor Miller noted that Police Scotland has made a high-level commitment to SNAP and is putting together a reference group on stop and search, which is positive. SNAP is involved in responding to that.
Professor Miller said that it would be helpful to receive feedback from parliamentary committees on the effectiveness of submissions on inquiries and bills.
It was agreed—this has already happened—that the clerks to the Equal Opportunities Committee would be informally advised of the SNAP process and the relevant timescales to help to inform any follow-up work on its Gypsy Traveller inquiries.
Informal briefings are quite useful. Does the committee want to take up the offer of an informal briefing from Professor Miller before the debate? I have asked when the debate might happen; it might be in November, although the Parliamentary Bureau has not settled anything yet. Would members like to have an informal briefing on all the issues before our debate, which would be useful?
Members indicated agreement.
That is it—thank you. Our next meeting will be on 12 August, when we will hold two round-table evidence sessions—the first will be on brain injury and the criminal justice system and the second will be on serious organised crime in the environmental sector.
Meeting closed at 11:27.Previous
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