Chamber and committees

That has not been made clear to me, but, as I said, the Minister for Housing is looking into it. We can perhaps write to the committee on that.

I am not aware of that number; I do not know whether any of my officials have it. We might have to write back to the committee with those details.

Yes, absolutely. One of the things that I can do, which I take away from this evidence session, is to speak with the Minister for Housing, because if he is going to have a round-table session to examine the recommendations from the CMA report, that consideration could be intertwined with that.

I will pass over to Jill Clark, who has been involved in the design of it.

I am grateful to Rachael Hamilton for securing the debate and giving me an opportunity to respond.

Rural crime, such as the kind that has been outlined by members and by the member in her motion, is a serious issue. It can have hugely detrimental effects on communities, businesses and individuals. Our farms are the lifeblood of our communities. Those businesses, some of which have existed for hundreds of years, should not have to put up with that kind of crime, which is almost exclusively perpetrated by organised crime groups seeking high-value items that can be resold to fund other activities.

We have rightly spent some time discussing the theft of farm machinery, and I would like to spend a few moments talking about the work that the Scottish Government and our partners are doing, but I will address some of the points made by members before I get into that.

Rachael Hamilton and Rhoda Grant raised the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023, so it might be helpful to give members a bit of insight into where the Scottish Government is on that. It was a private member’s bill that received Government and cross-party support down south. It was given royal assent on 20 July 2023 and it commenced in January 2024. It prohibits the sale of prescribed equipment without an immobiliser or a unique identifier.

Perhaps because it was a private member’s bill, Scottish Government officials were not aware of it until we were approached by Police Scotland in late May 2023, when we found that there was insufficient time to fully consider the implications of the bill for Scotland, given where it was in its passage through Westminster. There are no immediate plans to replicate the Equipment Theft (Prevention) Act 2023 in Scotland, although the Scottish Government is awaiting further information on the impact of the act in England and Wales, as that could influence future decisions.

Rachael Hamilton mentioned in her motion several initiatives that are working well and I am always happy to meet the member and stakeholders to discuss how we can improve things with respect to rural crime.

There are seven areas—I have them written down. Fly-tipping is one of the priorities of that strategy.

SPARC and the local partnerships also demonstrate crime prevention measures in relation to the marking, tracking and securing of farm machinery and tools, including in the most highly impacted areas. I fully appreciate that such theft is a significant concern to our rural communities and that it can have serious consequences for the agricultural sector in terms of cost and confidence. However, there have been some positive strides forward in relation to both the number of crimes reported and the associated cost of this crime on rural communities.

Police Scotland’s recent update on the work of SPARC highlights that in January 2025, a total of 69 rural crime incidents were reported, which is a decrease—albeit a small one—in the number of reported incidents across Scotland, with nine fewer reported crimes and offence incidents compared with the same period last year, when there were 78 crimes.

Where we see a clear difference in relation to the reduction in rural crime is in its total cost. In January 2025, that cost totalled £188,250, with a total of £44,400 having been recovered. That is a decrease in the monetary value of rural crime compared to the same period last year. In January 2024, the total reported rural crime figure was £221,675, but the recovered total at that point was only £16,500. Therefore, I hope that members can see that there has been a small but positive step in the past year.

The method of working with the SPARC model has proven so successful that Police Scotland is using it as the template for the Scottish partnership against acquisitive crime—known as SPAACE—which was created around 18 months ago to bring a partnership approach to preventing a number of forms of theft and fraud. It is at the forefront of efforts to tackle retail crime, which members have heard me talk about in the chamber previously.

On our support for Police Scotland more broadly, in 2025-26, the Scottish Government will increase police funding to £1.62 billion to support police capacity and capability. We are also providing almost £57 million in additional resource funding, which is an increase of 4 per cent compared with the 2024-25 published budget. That will support front-line service delivery and allow Police Scotland to make progress in key areas of transformation as outlined in its three-year business plan, which includes a strong commitment to delivering the best service for communities around Scotland, including those in rural areas.

I have made clear to members the sometimes devastating impact that rural crime can have on our farming and rural communities. I hope that the information that I have provided today gives members some assurance that the Scottish Government will not be complacent. We will continue to work with Police Scotland and other SPARC partners to develop and implement strategies to combat those perpetrating such crimes.

I am not aware specifically of what the cabinet secretary has commented on, but I am happy to raise the issue with her. I am sure that she will be happy to send a letter to the UK Government, if that would be worth while.

Christine Grahame mentioned Police Scotland’s differentiating urban and rural crime in its data categories. That is a very valid point. Christine Grahame will know that that is an operational matter for Police Scotland, but I am happy to raise the matter to see whether Police Scotland has any concerns or is progressing any work in that area.

I am acutely aware of how important it is to have partnership working with local authorities and local police—with lots of stakeholders—because they know the area best. Douglas Ross has highlighted some important work that is going on in his constituency.

I move on to the work that the Scottish Government and partners are doing to prevent rural crime and mitigate its impact. Disrupting organised crime and diverting individuals away from it remains a priority for the Scottish Government and partners on the serious organised crime task force. However, in a rural setting, much of the work that is aimed at preventing organised crime is done through the work of the Scottish Partnership Against Rural Crime, which has been mentioned several times. The Scottish Government continues to work with partners across SPARC and through the continued expansion of the local partnerships against crime across Scotland. This sort of theft is a priority for the group.

The rural crime strategy for 2022 to 2025 was launched on 24 June 2022. All members of SPARC were involved in its drafting. The strategy adopts a holistic approach. Among other things, it aims to ensure that those members are alert to and understand local and national concerns that relate to rural and environmental crime and promote and improve rural community and environmental wellbeing whereby people can flourish and feel safe. The strategy sets out seven rural crime priorities, each with its own action plan. Those include the theft of agricultural and forestry machinery, plant and quad bikes and all-terrain vehicles.

As I have suggested, only by working in partnership can we hope to tackle this menace. SPARC and the local partnerships recognise the crucial role of working together towards a common goal. To do that effectively, they share intelligence on organised crime groups that operate across borders and provide specific information to the rural and farming community on how best to secure equipment and prevent its theft, as well as addressing the other crimes that are noted in the strategy.

I thank Christine Grahame for highlighting that valid point.

Douglas Ross highlighted important issues about good partnership working, which is important. Having antisocial behaviour in my remit, I am acutely aware—

I will, if the member could give me just a moment, please.

When a case is referred to the appeal court for a fresh appeal, it will be for the appeal court to determine whether to quash or to uphold the person’s conviction or sentence.

Three appeals have been made on behalf of the late Mr Megrahi. In 2002, the Scottish appeal court, sitting at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, heard his first appeal and refused it. Thereafter, the commission referred the relevant conviction of Mr Megrahi to the appeal court twice, and each time appeal proceedings were heard.

It might be helpful to put on the record that Mr Megrahi abandoned his second appeal in 2009, shortly before he was released on compassionate grounds. As Christine Grahame said, Mr Megrahi died in Libya in 2012.

A second, and posthumous, application to the commission was made by Mr Megrahi’s family in 2017, which resulted in his conviction being referred back to the appeal court in March 2020. The appeal court fully considered the case and published in January 2021 its judgment on that appeal, which upheld Mr Megrahi’s conviction. An application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court was refused by that court in July 2022.

Although the appeal court has already heard and rejected two full appeals against Mr Megrahi’s conviction, it remains open to his family to submit a further application to the commission. That would probably be on the basis that there had been new evidence that the appeal court had not heard when it considered a previous appeal against conviction, to support a claim that there had been a miscarriage of justice. That is an essential element of how the Scottish justice system operates, and it is available to anyone who has unsuccessfully appealed against their conviction to the High Court. I hope that that information has reassured members that processes are in place to allow any alleged miscarriage of justice to be fully investigated and that those processes have been used in this case.

I finish by commending the people of Lockerbie, all of whom were affected by the tragedy. The town will, unfortunately, always be known for what happened more than 36 years ago. However, in their own individual ways, the people there have shown a determination to look to the future while acknowledging and reflecting on the past. That has been achieved through the connections made with families in America who were affected by the loss of life and through the work of community groups in the Lockerbie area.

Sherwood Crescent in Lockerbie was devastated by the disaster. At the time, one of the residents there said:

“They were here one minute. Then they were gone.”

The victims in the town of Lockerbie are not forgotten; they are remembered through the actions of the people in the town who lived through that horrendous act of terrorism and by those in succeeding generations. We also remember Flora, and all the other victims on board Pan Am flight 103, through the enduring human spirit of people such as Dr Swire and many others who ensure that we do not forget the horrific events of that fateful night.