Chamber and committees

Do you have anything to add, Aidan?

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. To pick up on a point that the convener made, I never have any difficulty finding the stats, because I simply search for the key item on my laptop. Such are the joys of digital technology, convener.

I want to pick up on cybersecurity and, in general, ask about your assessment of the challenges and opportunities brought about by artificial intelligence. One of the challenges is that, in general terms, none of us knows. Specifically, I would make the case that the public sector is not at the cutting edge. What assessment have you made of the advent of AI, and particularly the sensitivities around data that you have outlined? What challenges do you see, how are you addressing them and what are the opportunities?

Thank you very much for that. You have identified the concerns with the process that will, thankfully, be picked up and we will carry on progressing it.

Perhaps I should have tagged my final question in with my first one. It is about where you are delegating responsibility. Although you remain accountable, responsibility lies elsewhere, such as with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. Given what you outline in terms of protecting the integrity of your data and so on, how are you monitoring the risks of delegation? Will you talk me through that?

In part, you have answered one of my follow-up questions about the external assessment. You mentioned your software provider but, again, its view is only as good as its view of the world, and part of the challenge is the exponential speed of change. Would you consider consulting wider expertise? Do you have that in your sights?

You have led me on to another issue, perhaps inadvertently. I want to ask you about equalities. Like the convener, I have read through your corporate governance report and I know that equalities is an area that you are required to be cognisant of. However, of the seven people on your board, I note that one is a woman and six are men. I can see that your senior management team is equally split. I also did a wee search on the use of the word “woman” in your corporate governance report, but I was not able to find any mention of it.

You will know that we generally have a significant issue with lack of representation of women in financial services. What are your plans to make the board more equitable? What is the split on your risk and audit committee, which is a classic committee that normally never has an equitable split?

Alas, you have proved my theory correct.

Thank you very much.

Have I got time for one last question, convener?

He is just trying to get his own back. My question is about shared services. As you know, this is the Finance and Public Administration Committee, and the utilisation of shared services is something that I greatly value. We could be doing considerably more on that and I notice that you have it on your human resources function. I am just not clear about the history. Was that set up at the outset, or has it evolved relatively recently? How is it working out for you? It is just a general question.

I have a daughter. I brought her up to be ambitious, hard working and feisty, and I think that I succeeded, yet I see that she and her friends have in their lives experiences that are similar to those that have occurred in mine. My reality has become her reality. How disappointing.

Women as a sex class are under assault like never before: disproportionately affected by Covid, disproportionately affected by a cost of living crisis, and told by some men what it is to be a woman. Bold changes are needed to mark significant change, and that needs to start with the plans to criminalise prostitution. The United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is unequivocal. States must address trafficking and prostitution if they are to eliminate discrimination and violence against women.

I know that work on that is under way in the Scottish Government, and I appreciate its complexity, but I add my voice to the voices of those who continue to press for ambitious change. As long as women are seen as a legal commodity to be bought by men, there will be no significant shift in men’s violence against women. The ability fundamentally fosters a sense of male entitlement and ownership that permeates every aspect of our society. Logically, the term “men’s demand for prostitution” will ultimately need to be reframed as “people’s demand for prostitution”. How offensive.

What does the current data tell us? Police Scotland recorded that sex crimes rose from more than 13,000 in 2020-21 to 15,000 the following year—a 15 per cent rise in one year. The breakdown of the 2021-22 data shows that, of all those sex crimes, there were around 2,500 rapes or attempted rapes and more than 5,000 cases of sexual assault, with the remainder including different types of online sex crimes.

We cannot just attribute that to the pandemic, the cost of living crisis and so on. Although many types of crime have declined, sexual violence in Scotland has been on the increase since 1974. Take that in.

We know that there is an issue with reporting, and the Scottish crime and justice survey of 2019-20 showed that only 22 per cent of victims/survivors of rape reported to the police. However, as much as we glean new insights, bemoan gender-based violence and condemn violence against women and girls, it will probably continue to rise unless radical action is taken.

In my short speech today, I want to explore a new theme—the threat of artificial intelligence. There has been exponential growth in the generative capacity of AI, which extends to its use in pornographic imagery. The use of superimposing faces on to nudes or even depicting women as already nude is already prevalent. Sexual acts using those images in the form of so-called deepfake images are prevalent.

Laura Bates, the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, writing in the Westminster Parliament’s The House magazine, estimates that 96 per cent of deepfake images are pornography and that the vast majority are of women. The evidence tells us that women are targeted. She also states that the UK Government’s Online Safety Act 2023, which is an entirely reserved matter that runs to some 260 pages, does not mention women once. How can that be?

I will finish with this comment. We have a significant issue at the heart of our society, and I take comfort from my colleagues such as Ben Macpherson and Jim Fairlie, who I know frequently call on men to play their part. The sense of entitlement that some men have—“It does not affect us, so we do not need to care”—cannot be allowed to continue. I agree with Pam Gosal that it is depressing to have another debate on a matter that is getting worse rather than better.