Chamber and committees

More than 50,000 people in Scotland live with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis—Scotland has the highest prevalence of any country in the UK. I know that the minister is aware of that, because she attended one of our events last year.

The existence of IBD nurses has transformed the experiences of patients such as Maretta, who spoke to the group. She lost her IBD nurse in her local service, but it is a life-saving specialism. Is the minister willing to meet me and others to discuss the IBD nurse service? The specialist service has fundamentally changed people’s health experiences, and we need to ensure that that is covered across Scotland.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I could not connect. I would like to abstain.

The legal aid crisis seems to have been ignored in the budget, with a £14 million real-terms cut compared with 2023-24. What does that signal to those who need a legal aid lawyer in both civil and criminal cases? What allocation is there in the budget to address and sustain the legal aid system to attract new lawyers to the profession? I ask that question not simply in the interests of the legal profession but in that of the system that supports ordinary people who need good-quality representation in their lives, whether it is for a civil or criminal matter.

The Scottish Government regularly highlights its excellent equally safe at school project, which was developed by Rape Crisis Scotland. That project is one of the key ways of tackling violence against women and girls at its root.

The Scottish Government reported that it expected that the equally safe at school project would have been running in around 48 per cent of secondary schools by 2020, but it seems from an answer to a parliamentary question that I recently submitted that, four years later, only 116 schools have registered with the project, which is less than one third of secondary schools. Will the cabinet secretary outline what action the Government will take to ensure that all secondary schools run the equally safe at school programme, or a similar programme, to tackle violence against women and girls at its root?

Amendment 2A amends Sharon Dowey’s amendment 2 by adding that the Scottish ministers’ statement to Parliament must say

“what information will be available to victims about the change that the draft regulations would make (if approved) and the release of prisoners under the provisions amended by the regulations”.

I said at stage 2 that we wanted more information to satisfy the public, and victims, about the changes and about the impact that those will have on communities. I recognise that the Government has been prepared to work with me and with Sharon Dowey.

I move amendment 2A.

I will press amendment 2A.

Amendment 2A agreed to.

I thank Jamie Greene for lodging amendment 24, allowing discussion on what I think is a really important aspect of the bill. Current policy is that prisoners are released at 50 per cent of their sentence, which, if the bill is agreed to, will be moved back to 40 per cent, with no end in sight, as Jamie Greene has said.

I have big concerns about the bill, and the biggest is the one that Liam Kerr spoke to earlier in relation to section 3 and long-term prisoners. Probably the second most concerning aspect of the bill is that there is no prospect that, if we agree to it tonight, we will ever go back to the position of early release at 50 per cent of a sentence.

I do not know whether the Government is open minded, but I would have thought that it might be, because the rationale for the policy is to relax the numbers in our prisons to allow prison officers to manage the prison estate in a way that they think is safe.

Given that, there should be an opportunity at some point in the future to go back to the substantive policy that we have had for some time in Scotland, which is that prisoners should serve at least 50 per cent of their sentence if they are serving a sentence of less than four years. The problem with the lack of scrutiny is that we are all going to be scratching our heads about exactly what point in the future might be palatable to the Government in any stage 3 amendments that we lodge—right now, I have no idea about that. Jamie Greene’s suggestion of 90 per cent prison capacity is definitely worth considering. There should certainly be a sunset clause on the proposals, and we will be thinking about what time period would be sensible.

Labour members will vote against the bill, but, if it survives, we would at least like to amend it so that there is some end in sight in relation to that policy.

I regard this set of amendments as a vital part of not just the discussion on the bill but the wider discussion on how we support prisoners on release.

Amendment 13 deals with the management of the integration of short-term prisoners by local authorities. Amendment 14 is about access to housing for certain short-term prisoners to whom automatic early release has been extended.

Amendment 18 is about the reintegration of prisoners. It provides that Scottish ministers would have to

“publish their plans to support local authorities in managing the re-integration of prisoners released by virtue of the regulations.”

Under amendment 19, before making regulations, Scottish ministers would have to

“publish their plans to support prisoners released by virtue of the regulations with access to housing, health and rehabilitative support.”

As the Parliament has previously debated, one essential issue, particularly in relation to short-term prisoners, is the revolving door and the tendency for such offenders to reoffend. That is pertinent in the wider debate, of course, but the emergency legislation is a perfect opportunity to ensure that we make provision for offenders who are released into the community, many of whom would not be back in prison if they had the right support, particularly in relation to their housing and medical needs.

I therefore hope that Scottish ministers will give a positive welcome to at least the content of the amendments—if not, I am sure that they could be redrafted, to make sure that they are competent for stage 3. They are an important aspect of the debate.

I move amendment 13.

Amendment 10 would have the effect that the Scottish ministers

“must notify any person who is or appears to be a victim in relation to the offence of the date of the prisoner’s release”,

for those short-term prisoners who are affected by the bill. The effect of amendment 17 would be that future regulations

“must provide for the Scottish Ministers to notify any person who is or appears to be a victim in relation to the offence of the date of the prisoner’s release.”

Under amendment 20, the Scottish ministers would have to

“make a statement to the Parliament setting out improvements that have been made to the victim notification scheme in respect of prisoners to be released by virtue of the regulations.”

The bill proposes to use the same mechanism to contact victims as was used with the previous emergency early release measures, under which only 2 per cent of victims were contacted—of course, the remaining 98 per cent were not. Victim Support Scotland is calling for legislation to allow victim support organisations to proactively notify people who are impacted by crime, thereby removing the onus for victims to identify themselves and come forward for support.

This is an important group of amendments. If the Parliament passes the legislation to allow offenders to be released early, it is important that there is provision for victims to be properly notified, as the previous arrangements were not good enough.

Amendment 26, in the name of Sharon Dowey, is also important. We will support that amendment to ensure that there is proper scrutiny of the arrangements.

I move amendment 10.

I join Jamie Greene and the Parliament in commending our staff, the legislation team and all those who have made this emergency legislation possible.

I have been slightly frustrated by the rushed nature of the process, because I had intended to add my name in support of the amendment. I also intended to raise the question that Victim Support Scotland asked us to raise, which was about the insertion of information about the use of the policy and the number of offenders who are released. Due to the rushed process, I was unable to do that. Despite that, however, I support amendment 5.

Like Jamie Greene, we considered that a sunset clause would be appropriate in the case of this bill because, as was said at stage 2, a crisis is a short-term issue, but this is permanent regulation. We do not know when or if it will ever come to an end, so a sunset clause would have been appropriate. However, the amendment at least allows a future Parliament to reflect on whether the policy has achieved its aims and to analyse the information that the amendment requires. I welcome that.

As Jamie Greene said, it is important that a future Parliament has a close look at the legislation to see whether it has achieved its aims, and that it looks at the analysis of which prisoners have been released and what offences they committed, so that a future Government can decide whether to revert to the policy of early release at the 50 per cent point.