Chamber and committees

I am happy to do that. I will start by being fair and balanced: when I found out about the regulations that apply in England and Wales, I was a wee bit miffed that Scotland had been treated as an afterthought, because aviation—civil aviation, air navigation and all the rest of it—is reserved. Nonetheless, engagement between my officials and UK Government officials has been constructive. We are asking the Ministry of Justice to be a sponsor and to make a recommendation to the Civil Aviation Authority.

It is one of many tools. I do not want to say that everything would be solved or that the job would be done if those regulations applied to Scotland. It would help with drone activity, the impact of which is exceptionally concerning, but I am aware that the supply of illicit drugs to prisons is constantly evolving, which means that we constantly have to reappraise the tactical and operational approaches. Nevertheless, that would definitely help and, thus far, engagement at official level has been positive.

I have also taken the opportunity to write to the new Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State for Justice and Deputy Prime Minister, David Lammy, to welcome him to his new role and to raise the issue.

Progress has been made with the implementation of the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023. If you recall, part 1 was the new bail test, and that was implemented in May. You might recall that a section 102 order was required from the UK Government to ensure that our bail test did not inadvertently have consequences for extradition procedures.

Part 1 of the act has been fully implemented. That also enabled justice social work to contribute to bail decisions if it has information. Obviously, the court can also make requests of justice social work.

Parts of part 2 have been implemented. During the passage of the act, particularly at stage 3, there were amendments to lengthen the time between commencement and the publication of the national throughcare standards, in acknowledgement of the amount of work that needs to be done in relation to that.

Section 12 contains the duty to engage in release planning, and we are looking at a space for commencement of that. The duty is about putting an obligation on named partners—it is a lengthy list that includes local authorities, health boards and Police Scotland—to comply with any request from the Scottish Prison Service to engage

“in the development, management, and delivery of release plans”.

Some of that work has happened in practice through the STP 40 programme and earlier release programmes, so there has, in some ways, been a bit of a trial run. However, we are making plans for the commencement of section 12.

Section 13 relates to the national throughcare standards. During the passage of the act, we made it clear that there would be two years between commencement and the publication of those standards. We are engaged in the work with partners and we are liaising with the Scottish Government legal directorate on a timeframe for commencement. There are two phases to that work. As you might recall, the commitment was for the standards to be co-produced by partners and for there to be public consultation. There is a lengthy list of partners with whom the Scottish Government must engage, including the voluntary sector, which is positive. There is research being undertaken that will have to be brought to a conclusion as well. Phase 2 is the full, 12-week public consultation. The clock will start ticking when we lay the commencement order.

I have seen that evidence, and I will certainly discuss the issue further with the Scottish Prison Service. As you will appreciate, I engage very regularly with the chief executive and other senior staff, so I acknowledge that I have seen that evidence. Ms Todd is a bit more of an expert on vapes in the real world than I am.

Thanks, convener. As the committee is aware, the Scottish Government intended to legislate for a misogyny bill in this parliamentary session. However, I announced on 2 May that, due to the complexity of this area of law, and the clear and unambiguous provisions that would be needed, which would include the policy implications of the Supreme Court judgment of 16 April, there would be insufficient time for a bill to be finalised and introduced. That was also exacerbated by the short time left in this parliamentary session along with a packed legislative timetable.

I was also clear that I did not want a gap in the criminal law protections for women and girls and that, therefore, I would produce an SSI to add the characteristic of sex to the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021. As you said, convener, that SSI is subject to the super-affirmative procedure, which allows for thorough scrutiny before any legislation is finalised. Therefore, the required consultation seeks views on the draft policy of the SSI. We will, of course, carefully consider all feedback and views, including those of the committee. That process will inform the final SSI that will be laid in the Parliament.

The changes that are being consulted on will ensure that the criminal law protections for women and girls are the same as those that are provided through the 2021 act for other characteristics, such as age, race and disability. As the characteristic of sex will be added, men and boys will also be protected. However, we know that women and girls suffer significantly more from threats, abuse and harassment based on their sex, so they are likely to benefit most from those new protections and be able to report matters to the police.

The legislation will make it an offence for a person to stir up hatred against women and girls. Where an offender is motivated by, or demonstrates, malice or ill will towards women and girls in committing a criminal offence, that offence will be aggravated by prejudice relating to the characteristic of sex.

I consider the measures on which we are consulting to represent a significant step forward in strengthening legal protections for women and girls and ensuring that our justice system can respond appropriately to hate crimes that are motivated by prejudice on the basis of sex ahead of any misogyny bill that a future Government could introduce.

I am happy to take questions, convener.

That speaks to the broader issue, which is that legislation alone does not always change people’s behaviour or rectify the experiences that women have in our communities. We have just had a session about a completely different matter that touched on the need for people to know and exercise their rights.

In response to the process point, the consultation will end on 10 October. The responses will then be published, provided that respondents have given their permission. There will need to be an analysis of the information that we have received, including a form of statistical analysis, as there always is with such consultations.

Then, in due course, we will write to the committee, whether any changes are made to the final SSI or not. I want to lay the SSI before Christmas so that it can be addressed in early 2026. I certainly hope that it will be laid before the February recess, which is when I am aiming for.

There is nothing soft about our justice system. The Scottish crime and justice survey is an important flagship survey. It gives us good information and the longer-term trajectories speak to falling rates of youth crime and Scotland being safer. However, you are quite right to point to the fact that the proportion of violent crime where the perpetrator is a child has increased to 31 per cent of incidents. That is what I meant earlier when I said that there is newer information in the shorter term that gives cause for concern. We need to acknowledge that it is not acceptable and that it must be addressed.

You ask what has gone wrong. I think that it is the change in the behaviour of some young people due to the challenges that I spoke about earlier. I know that people do not always appreciate this, but it was ably articulated at the round-table discussion chaired by the First Minister and me that lockdown during Covid has had an impact on young people’s behaviour. Youth work leaders, people at the forefront of violence prevention and, of course, teachers in our schools will all narrate that as a reason. We have spoken at length about the online harms that are exposing our children to outside influences, and that is an issue. Related to that is the influence of what is called toxic masculinity on some of our young men. Those are three important drivers of the recent changes.

As for what is gonnae work, there is value in and a place for youth work. I am a huge advocate for youth work, which is supported via the cashback for communities programme, for example. We often tfdshink of punishment, and there is a place for that, but, to change behaviour, young people need reliable and trusted relationships. We absolutely must continue with prevention work and must not be swayed into thinking that we need to put all our eggs into the punishment basket. We must continue to commit to the long-term preventative work, because we are seeing long-term improvements as a result. However, there is no doubt that we need to be acutely aware of and address the recent changes in the behaviour of some young people.

Involved?

I do not have any figures at hand for that, but I can certainly—

In phase 7 of the scheme, which is a three-year period, £26 million has been allocated, which is an increase on the initial £20 million. That is very much in response to some of the short-term changes that we are seeing in the behaviour of some young people.

I will give some examples in response to your question, Mr Ewing. In 2023-24, the total cashback scheme expenditure was just under £6 million. In 2024-25, it was £6.7 million, and the forecast for 2025-26 is £6.8 million. Around 90 per cent of that goes on cashback projects, but smaller amounts are allocated to staff costs and partners’ delivery costs.