Chamber and committees

Thank you very much, cabinet secretary. It is regrettable that the updated information from the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee has been provided at relatively short notice. However, I am keen to invite questions from members, and I will bring in Katy Clark first.

I would like us to move on.

I will ask my usual opening question to get us under way. According to the evidence that we have received so far in our budget scrutiny, across the main justice partners, a further almost £270 million in resource funding and an extra £134 million in capital are being requested as the bare minimum for 2026-27, in order to prevent some of the consequences that we have heard from different bodies, such as Police Scotland, the Scottish Prison Service and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. I am interested in your views on those requests for additional budget. How confident are you of securing that amount of extra budget for the forthcoming year across the justice sector?

It is interesting to hear your comments about collaboration with European partners. The committee has explored that issue and taken an interest in whether, with the impact of Brexit, justice co-operation within law enforcement remains as robust as it needs to be.

I come back to Pauline McNeill’s line of questioning on prisons. We heard from the chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service that, with regard to HMP Highland and HMP Glasgow, the SPS will require an increased capital budget of £462 million in 2026-27. That is her overall capital budget, with the bulk going to the construction of HMP Highland and HMP Glasgow. Will the cabinet secretary confirm that the construction costs of HMP Glasgow, given the stage that it is currently at, will be met regardless of whether costs increase beyond the current capital budget that the Scottish Prison Service has asked for?

Thank you. That is helpful, and it is on the record.

On the basis of members’ views and the opportunity that we have to express our views on the DPLR Committee’s report, I am content to continue and to move to consideration of the motion. However, we will very clearly set out the concerns of the committee with regard to the more technical aspects of the process.

Our next item of business is consideration of the motion to approve the affirmative SSI on which we have just taken oral evidence. I invite the cabinet secretary to move motion S6M-19681 and to make any brief additional comments that she wishes to make.

Good morning, and welcome to the 32nd meeting in 2025 of the Criminal Justice Committee. We have received no apologies. We expect to be joined later by Rachael Hamilton.

Under our first item of business, we will finish taking evidence on the Prostitution (Offences and Support) (Scotland) Bill. We have one panel of witnesses, and I intend to allow up to 90 minutes for the evidence session. I refer members to papers 1 and 2.

I welcome to the meeting Ash Regan, the member in charge of the bill, and, from her office, Maren Schroeder, who is a senior researcher, and Anna Macleod, who is a parliamentary assistant—a warm welcome to you all.

Before we start, I remind everyone to be as succinct as possible in your questions and responses. I invite Ash Regan to make a short opening statement; we will then move to questions.

We will have to bring the session to a close now. I thank Ms Regan and colleagues for a helpful evidence session.

We will have a short suspension until 10:35 to allow for a changeover of witnesses.

Our next item of business is completion of our pre-budget scrutiny. We have one panel of witnesses today and I intend to allow up to 90 minutes for this item. I refer members to papers 3 and 4.

I welcome Angela Constance, Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs; and Cat Dalrymple, director of justice, and Don McGillivray, director of safer communities, both from the Scottish Government. I invite the cabinet secretary to make a short opening statement.

Our next item of business is the consideration of two affirmative instruments: the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Notification Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025; and the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2019 and the Prisoners (Early Release) (Scotland) Act 2025 (Consequential Modifications) Regulations 2026.

We are joined again by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs, and I welcome to the meeting Suzanne Lyle from the family law unit, Graham Robertson from the public protection unit and Louise Miller from the legal directorate, all at the Scottish Government. I refer members to paper 5 of the meeting papers and thank those bodies that provided additional submissions to us in relation to this Scottish statutory instrument and the next one.

I intend to allow up to 20 minutes for our consideration of the SSIs. I invite the cabinet secretary to make opening remarks on the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (Notification Requirements) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2025.

Sure.