Chamber and committees

That is very helpful. We have regular engagement with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the Fire Brigades Union, as you highlighted, and I am interested in your point about looking more closely at how the benefits of reform can be reinvested in other areas across the service.

I will pick up on your point about property and the estate. Issues of that nature have come up in probably every evidence session that we have had with colleagues. Recently, we have been considering the links with the draft climate change plan and what has been going on across public services to reduce carbon emissions. The SFRS has been active in that area, and we took evidence from the chief officer on that recently. The questions were less about the operational response to climate-related incidents and more about how the service is reducing its carbon footprint. In your inspectorate role, have you looked at that issue to date? I am interested in your comments on how the service can further address climate change by reducing carbon emissions across the estate.

It does. Staying on the subject of that important inspection work, my final question is: have you found that recurring themes have cropped up that might suggest more systemic issues or concerns?

I endorse and commend the partnership working that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is involved in. There is a really strong partnership approach, which we can be grateful for and proud of.

Finally, do you have sufficient staff and financial resources?

That is a helpful overview. I will stay on that topic. I refer to a piece of work that the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland has done recently, which found that abuse of position for sexual purposes now accounts for around 30 per cent of the most serious cases that it deals with, with clear patterns of male officers exploiting vulnerable women. I am not sure whether you are aware of that report. I am interested in whether the PIRC collects and publishes equivalent data for Scotland. What proportion of the more serious investigations that you deal with, or have dealt with in recent years, have involved predatory or sexually exploitative behaviour by officers? You will understand that violence against women and girls is a common theme that is raised in the committee, so I am keen to explore the issue.

I have a question to finish with. Some really interesting points have been made about the shifting workload that the PIRC is having to deal with as a result of a range of external factors over which, as you have said, you have no control. Following on from the discussion about resources and the fact that you have to respond to these things, can you outline any structural or legislative reforms that you believe are necessary to strengthen independent oversight of policing and ensure that the PIRC is able to carry out its role to the best of its ability?

Thank you for that. As members have no more questions, I thank you both for your attendance today.

That completes the evidence session, and indeed our business in public for today. I remind members that we agreed to defer our review of evidence and our consideration of our annual report, possibly to next week. In the meantime, members who want to make any points about the annual report should feel free to feed them in, and we will take them forward.

Meeting closed at 13:00.

Good morning, and welcome to the ninth meeting in 2026 of the Criminal Justice Committee. We have received no apologies this morning.

Our first item of business is a decision on whether to take items 7 and 8 in private. Do we agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Our next item of business is an evidence-taking session by way of reflecting on the budget proposed for 2026-27 and the Scottish spending review. This morning, we are focusing on Police Scotland. I refer members to papers 1 and 2.

I welcome to the meeting Chief Constable Jo Farrell; Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs, who is Police Scotland’s DCC for professionalism and enabling services; and Sarah Roughead, who is chief financial officer. A warm welcome to you all.

We have around 60 minutes for this evidence session, but I remind everyone to ask succinct questions and to provide succinct responses. I start by inviting the chief constable to make a short opening statement.

Thank you very much. We will move straight into questions.

I will first pick up on a point that you made in your opening remarks about the challenges relating to unmet mental health need. You will be aware of the evidence that we took from your colleagues Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Paton and Nicky Page on 18 February on the impact on policing of responding to wellbeing-related situations and to vulnerable people in the community.

One of the issues that was flagged up in that evidence session was the specific duty under section 32 of the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012, which states that one of the main policing principles is

“to improve the safety and well-being of persons, localities and communities in Scotland”.

At a recent Scottish Police Authority board meeting, you provided figures to say that Police Scotland was now being called out to around 700 mental health incidents every day. You are reported as saying that the police

“cannot continue to operate in this way”.

I note your comments in the recent issue of 1919 Magazine, in which you said:

“Around 80 per cent of police callouts now involve no criminality, with police time increasingly taken up by public safety concerns, wellbeing checks and mental health crises.”

That is an issue that the committee is well familiar with, having held a number of evidence sessions on it.

Do you have a view on the level of police resources that are being used to respond to the wellbeing challenge on the police?

Our next item of business is consideration of the motion to approve the affirmative SSI on which we have just taken oral evidence. I remind officials—not that I need to—that only MSPs may speak in a debate on a motion.

Motion moved,

That the Criminal Justice Committee recommends that the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 (Characteristic of Sex) (Amendment and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026 [draft] be approved.—[Angela Constance]