I thank our parliamentary staff and in particular the staff of the broadcasting office for all their hard work in setting up this remote, formal meeting of the Justice Committee.
The committee recognises the very challenging times in which we are living, and we pay tribute to all the organisations in the justice sector for their continued dedicated service and hard work at this time.
The committee also passes on its heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the prison officer from Her Majesty’s Young Offenders Institution Polmont who is the first prison officer to have died from coronavirus, and to the friends and family of all involved in the justice sector who have been affected during the outbreak.
Members do not want to place undue pressure on those bodies during this public health emergency. However, as the First Minister has said, it is important that parliamentary scrutiny and accountability continue. That is why we have been writing to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and others on a range of issues, such as changes to prison rules and the safety of prison staff and prisoners; plans for the release of certain types of prisoner; policing powers during the coronavirus crisis; the functioning of our courts and proposals for solemn cases; and guidance on the rules for family contact during the crisis.
I am grateful to the cabinet secretary and others for finding the time to answer questions from the committee and for the way in which the cabinet secretary and the various bodies have responded so quickly to the written questions that we have asked. All our letters and the responses to them are on our website.
Our first item is to decide whether to take in private item 3, which is a discussion among members of the evidence that we will take from the cabinet secretary. Given the complexities of a group discussion over videoconference, I will assume that everyone agrees unless someone says otherwise. Therefore, if members are happy to take item 3 in private, they do not need to respond, as that would require all microphones to be active at once. No one has objected, so we are agreed to take item 3 in private.
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