“An overview of Scotland’s criminal justice system”
Under item 5, the committee will consider correspondence from the Scottish Government regarding the Auditor General’s report entitled “An overview of Scotland’s criminal justice system”. The latest piece of correspondence in response to the committee, which deals with reoffending rates, has been circulated to members.
The reconviction rate for Scotland of 44 per cent has suddenly gone down to 31 per cent. That seems to me to be an enormous restatement. We were worried that our figure was ahead of England’s and that our female reoffending rate was even worse. There has been no restatement of that but, given the different ways of gathering the figures, I presume that that will go down as well. The England and Wales figure seems to be roughly the same as the two-year reconviction rate, and the one-year reconviction rate for Scotland has presumably dropped from 44 per cent to 31 per cent. I find that degree of swing quite extraordinary. I realise that there are slight differences in how the figures are collected—some things are included, some are excluded and so on—but the England and Wales figure has stayed roughly constant while the Scottish figure has swung down radically to 31 per cent. That is contrary to what Audit Scotland has been telling us and the figures that have previously come before us. Can we get a wee bit better grip on what is happening, and some uniformity and a common base from which we calculate?
Mr Beattie’s point is entirely fair. I am conscious that we have undertaken a correspondence series on the matter with the Scottish Government and that there is a report on reducing reoffending in the programme for future reports that we have discussed. I wonder whether we should note Mr Beattie’s point and return to it when we return to the issue of reducing reoffending. I am open to any other suggestions. Is that acceptable, Mr Beattie?
I am fine with that.
Do members agree to note the correspondence and Mr Beattie’s point, and to return to the matter when Audit Scotland returns to report on reducing reoffending?
We will now move into private session, so I ask any members of the public or the press to leave.