Chamber and committees

I am trying to make sense of what you said. I cannot conceive of a situation in which there would be any support for the English system of unanimity of 12, given that we have corroboration. Albeit that you are suggesting that the October decision has changed that somewhat, we still have it. If the Government had come up with the scenario of a majority of 10 out of 12, would that fulfil the requirement for balance?

I did not fully understand, Michael, what you meant when you addressed the question of reasonable doubt. The point was made to the committee recently that, if possible, we want a jury to act as a collective in coming to a conclusion. That is what we are aiming for, rather than it being a set of individuals who all vote. I had not considered that point previously, but now I think that it is really important.

Will you explain a bit more what you meant when you talked about what would happen if the jury thought that the accused probably did it, but there was reasonable doubt? I did not fully understand that point.

My primary concern—as you might have read—about the setting up of a specialist court is that I do not believe that the Government can fix the problem of rights of audience, which it accepts is a problem. I put that specific question to the Government at stage 1, with regard to how it would ensure that the representation that currently exists in the High Court and the sheriff court would remain as is. The Government said that it would lodge an amendment to address that, but I do not see how it can be done. I seek your view on that.

When we changed the sentencing powers of the sheriff court from three years to five years, a promise was given that it would still attract counsel for those cases that would previously not have been heard in the sheriff court. Obviously, if cases are heard in the High Court, they automatically attract counsel.

That is where I think the flaw is with regard to rights of audience. If we set up a specialist court as part of the High Court, it is quite clear that the rights of audience remain the same. If we set up a specialist court of the sheriff court, the rights of audience remain the same. I would like you to answer that point.

I will conclude with this. I recently learned of a case that was, I was told, indicted as assault with injury to life, and it went to the sheriff court. As you will know, if it had been indicted to the High Court, the representation would have been different—the practitioner’s view was that it was an attempted murder and not an assault with injury. The Crown is deciding how it is indicting these cases, and where cases do not go to the High Court, they do not get the representation that the system intended.

I have serious concerns. Do you have those concerns, and do you think that the issue can be fixed? That is the fundamental question. Is there a way of ensuring that those cases that would be likely to attract more than a five-year sentence would still attract representation by counsel, or not?

I will do my best, convener.

We will have to vote on this pretty soon. What I am trying to understand from both organisations is what you would like us to argue for in relation to the jury size. Give us some guidance on that. That is what I am trying to get to, because if we do not want to be an outlier, we either go with the English position or we do something that is completely unique to Scotland, which is what we have.

Do I conclude that you would prefer the bill not to go through? I am just surmising. There has obviously been a lot of discussion behind the scenes. That has concluded with the Government changing its position to a jury majority of 10 to five, which is what the senators had asked for; it is not what the committee had concluded. I am just trying to understand where you would like the committee to be at stage 2. If you cannot change the Government’s position, is that fatal enough for us to vote against the bill?

I am not meaning that. It is about the jury numbers. It has been suggested that, if we go for a majority of 10 out of 15, we would be an outlier. However, we were already an outlier under the original proposals in the bill. My question is whether we should accept that we are going to be an outlier or whether we try to bring ourselves into line—I do not like using the term “into line”, but you know what I mean. Should we mimic another jurisdiction, so that we are not an outlier? That is what I am trying to get at. Does that make sense?

But you do not think that it—

I understand that, but I want to get a sense of how important and central you think access to rehab is. At some point, we need an answer to the question about demand.

I do not know how easy it is for drug users to access rehabilitation, although I am quite familiar with how difficult it is for those who are dependent on alcohol to access such facilities or to know who to call. What is the pathway? Are you satisfied that it is clear? People might be on their own, because they do not have family support or because their family might not be able to cope any more. Are you clear about how easy it is to access facilities?

I want to follow on from Annie Wells’s line of questioning, because she asked what I think is an essential question about demand. We acknowledge the progress that has been made; however, we do not know what the demand is, so it is important to establish that. I know that there are many ways of approaching that question, but to what extent do you think that access to rehabilitation programmes is central to tackling drugs deaths?

I might come back on the point about medical assessment at a future date. It is worth considering whether there might be any blockages facing someone who comes forward because they think that they need help—that is, the possibility of their being rejected after making such a big step, just because of a medical assessment. As I have said, I might come back to that at another date.

I also want to ask about the fact that men are twice as heavy users of services. I do not detect a lot of discussion about the approach that we should take, given that high numbers of men are harming themselves. How is that factored into the approach that you are taking to drug misuse and stopping drug deaths?