We have heard about the proposal that specialised courts will not be held in dedicated buildings; existing buildings in the court estate would be used instead. How well would that reduce traumatic experiences for victims? Do you have any concerns about the proposals for specialised courts?

We have heard that trauma-informed measures will be in place—for example, the use of separate entrances, the option to have screens, and there being separate areas for victims, survivors and their families to go to. However, those would be in buildings in the current court estate and not purpose-built courts. Do you have any concerns about that?

The Scottish Government is set to provide guidance to the Scottish Funding Council on budget allocation for the 2024-25 academic year on the basis of a real-terms cut of more than £141 million to the council’s budget in the financial settlement for higher education in the 2024-25 fiscal year. In the light of that, alongside the shocking admission by the finance secretary that more than 1,200 places will no longer be available to Scottish students, will she confirm that there will be no additional budget cuts to university teaching grants in the current academic year as a consequence of the December budget, and will she provide information on what alternative routes for success will be made available to school leavers in Scotland?

I thank my colleague Brian Whittle for bringing the debate to the chamber. HMP Kilmarnock is a success story. It is a well-run operation that supports local jobs and delivers good value for money for taxpayers. In those respects, it is something of a rarity in Scotland—in the Scottish National Party era, it is rare to see high performance and costs that do not spiral out of control.

The sensible decision would have been to continue the successful HMP Kilmarnock contract, and the smart move would be to model our other prisons on it. Instead, SNP ministers have chosen to end this success story and, for purely ideological reasons, to nationalise HMP Kilmarnock. It is an extraordinary, short-sighted and baffling move. This damaging decision will cost taxpayers money, hinder efforts to rehabilitate prisoners and leave staff in a worse spot.

The SNP Government could have let the prison continue running well, as it has been in recent years. Instead, as Brian Whittle outlined, SNP ministers have created all kinds of problems for themselves by not learning from this success story.

First, ministers have put at risk many effective things that HMP Kilmarnock does. It has many bespoke systems and programmes, which may not continue now, including a digital management tool to book medical appointments and family contact visits. Last year, it introduced a breakfast club for veterans in custody, which is a very worthwhile and commendable programme. I hope that that continues after nationalisation, but that remains to be seen.

Secondly, from speaking with the current director of HMP Kilmarnock, it is clear that staffing will be problematic for the nationalised prison. The many experienced staff, who do a great job at the moment, will need to change the way that they work. Staff contracts will be radically different. A lot of new recruitment will be necessary in the light of the change. Recruitment may become even more challenging if current staff leave because of worsening working conditions.

As my colleague Russell Findlay said, when the Scottish National Party nationalises HMP Kilmarnock, body-worn cameras will be taken away from the prison officers and may be sent south to English prisons. That makes no sense whatsoever. The provision of those devices to officers by HMP Kilmarnock was a positive thing and it should continue.

That is an example of cost cutting by the SNP, but, unbelievably, it looks as though nationalising HMP Kilmarnock will be far more expensive than the current contract, under which HMP Kilmarnock provides great value for taxpayers. Perhaps even more shocking is the fact that we do not yet know how much more nationalisation will cost than the current approach. No estimates are available. That work really should have been done before any plans to end the contract were announced.

At the Scottish Parliament’s Criminal Justice Committee in November, I asked the Scottish Prison Service whether a full assessment of budgetary requirements had been completed. Just a few months before the date of nationalisation, that had still not been done, and whether it has been completed now is unclear. Value for money does not appear to have been a consideration in the decision, and no studies appear to have been done on how much more the nationalisation will cost taxpayers. According to some estimates, it may cost £3 million to £5 million more—several million pounds that could have been spent on schools, hospitals or other essential public services.

It seems that the SNP was never interested in the positives of HMP Kilmarnock. It was not interested in the fact that it is good value for money and runs effectively. It was not interested in saving money that could be spent on schools and hospitals. For purely ideological reasons, SNP ministers will end the success story of HMP Kilmarnock, and Scottish taxpayers will suffer as a result.

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the finance secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding the potential impact of the reduction in the funding allocation for Scottish universities in its proposed budget on graduate skills development and employability. (S6O-02969)

Susan Sinclair, Judith Smith, Rab Thomson and William Quarm are just a few of the many who were prosecuted by the Crown Office in Scotland on the basis of the flawed Horizon IT system used by the Post Office; one of them has since died. Last week, the Scottish National Party’s Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs said that the scandal showed the value of having an independent prosecution system. Her statement will jar with sub-postmasters who were prosecuted by the so-called independent system. Does the Lord Advocate agree that the independent prosecution system in Scotland completely failed those wrongly convicted sub-postmasters?

So they self-identify?

You said that there are 23 transgender individuals in the prison system just now. How many of them were transgender when they went into the prison system, and how many changed when they were in prison?

The Ministry of Justice changed its policy last year. Why did you not follow the same policy as the Ministry of Justice?

The SPS has a trauma-informed approach to female offenders. The 2019 model of custody for women recognises that

“women who have suffered some type of physical or emotional trauma are often hyper-aware of possible danger”,

and that survivors of trauma may find it “difficult to trust others”. If you are putting male-bodied trans women into the female estate, how do you reconcile that with looking after the women who are already in prison?