Chamber and committees

I, too, welcome Neil Gray to his new position.

The announcement of funding to Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda is welcome. Will the Scottish Government give us an update on other aid that has been promised? In October, the Scottish Government pledged £120,500 from its humanitarian aid fund to help South Sudan’s Unity state, which suffered flooding across 90 per cent of its territory. How much of the funding has been spent in South Sudan, and how has the country been sent, given recent articles that said that charity teams have—

We have heard a great deal from members about the challenges that Scotland’s justice system faces, from backlogs in the courts to the rampant drug use and violence in Scottish prisons. It is clear that members all around the chamber think that improvements are needed.

At first sight, I welcomed the new strategy on the vision for justice in Scotland. I hoped that it would be full of exciting ideas, plans and reforms that would tackle Scotland’s crime problem, put more bobbies back on the beat, deliver justice to victims and ensure that criminals receive the time that they deserve. However, I found lots of warm words but not much substance in the document. There is much in the document on which I could comment, but I am aware of the time, so I will focus on the police.

Our police have done an admirable job during the pandemic. They were called on to go above and beyond the call of duty. Police Scotland officers—and indeed all emergency service workers—weathered the challenges that were thrown in their faces with patience and compassion but often at great cost to their mental health.

The police deserve and have the support of the Scottish Conservatives, but they need it from the Scottish Government, too. Let us consider equipment, for example. The police have been calling for body-worn cameras for months. Cameras would have been really useful during the height of the pandemic, but when Police Scotland asked for 10,000 devices, it received only 311. Given that assaults on police staff increased by 6.3 per cent last year, with a staggering 6,942 attacks recorded—including spitting attacks by people with Covid—we might assume that cameras would have been a top priority for the Government, but as far as I know, the police are yet to take possession of the full number. If the minister wants to correct me on that in her closing speech, that is fine.

Processing the footage from cameras requires decent information technology infrastructure, but the police lack decent IT. The Association of Scottish Police Superintendents went as far as to say that police information and communications technology systems are

“largely not fit for purpose”.

Given the increase in cybercrime, outdated computers are the last thing that we need.

Things get worse when we look at the force’s fleet of vehicles. The Scottish Police Federation has said that Police Scotland’s fleet is ageing, with more than half the vehicles more than five years old and with 150,000 miles on the clock. Only last week, newspapers reported that Police Scotland is using vehicles that date back to the 1980s, with one car turning 33 this year and more than 500 vehicles in their 10th year of service. While Scottish criminals are driving Porsches and Lamborghinis, our police are being sent out to do their job in cars that date from the fall of the Berlin wall.

It is not just the IT systems and the vehicles that are ageing; the police estate is ageing, too. There is mould on the carpets, and there are buildings that are not windtight or watertight. They have sections that are mothballed because they are in such a decrepit state. It has got so bad that a quarter of Scottish police buildings are now rated as being in poor condition. That is the reality that our police officers have to deal with on a daily basis, and that is not to mention members of the public who deal with them. No wonder the police are asking for £85.7 million in capital funding from the Scottish Government. However, they were left disappointed, as they have received only £53.7 million.

There is a lot of wasted money. We could save money if we were not wasting money on ferries and £700,000 on civil servants looking at the independence referendum. Malicious prosecutions have already been mentioned. There is money that we could put towards the police.

That is before we include the £218 million budget shortfall in the police’s five-year strategic plan. To add insult to injury, Police Scotland received only a £2.5 million increase in capital funding from the Scottish Government last year. Even that was only as a consequence of UK-wide police reform. Given those numbers, it is little surprise that, in the Criminal Justice Committee pre-budget scrutiny consultation, the Scottish Police Federation said:

“The police service remains ...chronically underfunded”.

Perhaps the greatest problem overall is the issue of front-line police officers, who are overworked, overstretched and underfunded. Whichever way the SNP tries to spin it, it is a fact that the number of police officers in Scotland has fallen to its lowest point since 2009. Twelve out of 13 local police divisions have seen their officer numbers cut since Police Scotland was formed, and nearly 650 fewer local police officers are on the streets or responding to calls. Meanwhile, crimes such as sexual assault are on the increase.

The Scottish Government has a choice to make. Should it support our hard-working police officers and provide them with the funding and equipment that they need, or should it continue to make more unreasonable demands of them and rob Peter to pay Paul, as one policeman put it?

No. I am sorry. I am just about to finish.

The new justice strategy was a chance to tackle crime at source, set out a plan for fair police funding and reset relations between the Scottish Government and the force. Sadly, there is little in the document that will be of comfort to the police officers out in the streets tonight trying to keep us safe.

Good morning. On compliance of Scottish income tax payers, one issue that has arisen during the scrutiny of previous NAO income tax reports is whether any evidence of behavioural effects has emerged as a result of Scottish income tax rates and bands diverging from those in the rest of the UK. In 2020-21, Scottish taxpayers paid more income tax than taxpayers south of the border on earnings of over £27,000, with a difference in excess of £1,500 on those earning over £50,000 per annum. The NAO report states:

“HMRC continues to assess as ‘low’ the risk of non-compliance as a result of divergence between Scottish income tax and the rest of the UK”

and

“HMRC has not identified any significant or widespread instances of taxpayers changing their address to obtain a tax advantage.”

What is the definition of “significant” or “widespread” in this instance?

So it is not causing concern just now, but you are keeping an eye on it.

My other question concerns HMRC. It has limited performance data available about its compliance activities in Scotland. Unlike its income tax system, which flags residents as Scottish, HMRC’s compliance system cannot readily identify people living in Scotland. Therefore, it cannot easily track and monitor compliance activity in Scotland, which affects its ability to collect performance data about the extent of Scottish non-compliance.

Why is there limited performance data and compliance activity in Scotland, and what, if anything, is being done to address that?

Okay—thank you for that.

Paragraph 28 of the section 22 report refers to 22 separate recommendations that the external auditor made. Those recommendations can be found in the auditor’s annual audit report, which the commissioner’s office has accepted and is progressing.

We also understand from the external auditor’s annual report that a “separate detailed draft report” by the auditor to management was considered by the advisory audit board in June 2021, which set out its findings and conclusions on each audit dimension. Is that report publicly available?

Good morning, Mr Boyle.

Glasgow Prestwick Airport was purchased by the Scottish Government in 2013 for £1, but paragraph 28 of the Audit Scotland report states that

“loan support provided up to 31 March 2021”

came to a total of

“£43.4 million although this was valued at £11.6 million in Transport Scotland’s accounts ... following an independent valuation.”

Audit Scotland then notes that

“£1.2 million interest charges have accrued during the year resulting in total accrued interest of £6.3 million”

and that

“In keeping with Transport Scotland’s approach in previous years, the interest on these loans has been impaired to nil.”

What is the explanation for the differences in the figures for loan support and interest charges for Prestwick in the Audit Scotland report and Transport Scotland’s accounts?

Thank you for that. What are the financial implications for the Scottish Government of the continued failure to find a buyer for Glasgow Prestwick Airport?

We note that the commissioner was appointed as commissioner and accountable officer on 1 April 2019. Paragraph 8 on page 3 of the section 22 report outlines that

“The Commissioner has been on extended leave since early March 2021.”

We also note that the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body appointed the public appointments manager as acting commissioner and the head of corporate services as acting accountable officer on 20 April 2021. Do you know the reasons why the acting commissioner is not also fulfilling the role of accountable officer?