Chamber and committees

Thank you, Presiding Officer.

Of course there is a changing nature to policing. I am very keen to see the outcome of tomorrow’s meeting with the Scottish Police Authority and the chief constable. The meeting will refer to the enhanced emphasis on things such as cybercrime and violence against women and girls. Importantly, from addressing incidents associated with vulnerability, including hate crime and domestic incidents, to dealing with the increasing complexity of crime in the digital age, the £1.45 billion of funding in 2023-24, which was not the subject of an amendment from the Conservatives, will support Police Scotland’s leading work with communities on prevention and early intervention.

The Scottish Government is committed to working closely with the Scottish Police Authority and Police Scotland to support the delivery of our joint policing strategy, to ensure that we continue to have safe, protected and resilient communities. Police engagement with the local authority in setting priorities and objectives for the policing of Edinburgh is crucial. I have said already that local deployment is a matter for the chief constable. Scotland’s national police service allows local divisions across the country to access specialist expertise and resources at a regional and national level, depending on demand. Police Scotland statistics indicate that 1,131 officers were in the Edinburgh divisional area on 31 December 2022.

Policing is and will continue to be a priority for the Scottish Government. Scotland has a higher number of officers than at any time during the previous Administration, and more officers per head of population than England and Wales, with 30 officers per 10,000 population in Scotland, in comparison with 24 officers per 10,000 population in England and Wales.

North-east divisions have a core complement of officers, who might be supported by specialist expertise and resources at a regional and national level should operational demand increase. Of course, the recruitment and deployment of resources are matters for the chief constable.

I believe that we need additional police—of course—to tackle crime across the whole country. I have answered already in relation to the number of police officers, which is substantially higher than it was at any time during the previous Administration. Substantial improvements in salaries for police officers have also been made.

We will continue to support the priorities that the police tell us are important to them. I have mentioned two of them, which I expect to be discussed tomorrow. Once again, I note that, during the budget process, we received no amendment to the budget from the Labour Party seeking more funding for police. This Administration will continue to support the police. This year, that support will amount to £1.45 billion.

DESC is an excellent innovation. It represents a step towards a truly modern criminal justice system, and is, in the words of the police, justice partners and the architects of the system, a world-leading system that places the needs of victims, witnesses and other users of the justice system at its heart. It also represents an investment of £33 million over 10 years. It will make it easier to share evidence; it will allow swifter access, helping cases to be resolved more quickly; and it will reduce the risk of trauma to victims and witnesses.

I agree that sharing intimate images of others without their consent is a serious crime. There was an excellent programme on television this week about a very courageous young woman who took such a case to court very successfully. Of course, Katy Clark also raised the issue a short time ago.

The Parliament legislated to make it a specific criminal offence punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment. The offence is often committed online and, as I said, we have been working hard to push the UK Government to strengthen its Online Safety Bill to help to tackle this kind of activity. Our delivering equally safe fund provides £110,822 to the South West Grid for Learning Trust to help to support its revenge porn helpline and to further its work to get illegal intimate images removed from the internet. That funding demonstrates the Scottish Government’s commitment to challenging all forms of violence against women and girls.

The Government believes that reform of the criminal law on misogyny can help to encourage men to change their behaviour by sending a clear message about what is criminally unacceptable behaviour. Our consultation is seeking views on new laws that would specifically criminalise misogynistic harassment and the sending of threatening or abusive messages about rape, sexual assault or disfigurement to women and girls.

However, as I made clear during the recent debate on misogyny, new criminal law will not achieve cultural change on its own, so we will continue to focus on tackling wider gender inequality, and we will take action in schools to address gender-based violence and sexual harassment.

I agree with Jim Fairlie about the extent to which men can be ignorant of the ways in which, from a very early age, young women and girls have to adapt their behaviour because of the behaviour of men. It is right to highlight that so that men are more aware of it.

It is very important that we consider best practice from around the world. We should learn from what other countries have done to address misogynistic behaviour and to change deeply ingrained cultural attitudes. That can be done through changes to the law and by taking other measures to achieve lasting cultural change. If a misogyny bill is the result of that, it is likely that that bill will be world leading. For that reason, I hope that we will get support for the bill from across the chamber.

The case that Ruth Maguire mentions is a tragedy. My sympathies go to Grace’s family and friends. I think that I am right in saying that I have previously met Grace’s father and others, but I would, of course, be happy to meet both Ms Maguire and Mr Handling to discuss suggested reform in the area.

The Government is committed to abolishing the not proven verdict and the matter will come before Parliament very soon. The Scottish Law Commission is currently looking at the more general operation of homicide law. I encourage people to pass to the Law Commission their views on how this specific area could be reassessed as part of the wider look at homicide law. Once that response comes back to Government, I would be happy to discuss it with Ruth Maguire and the individual concerned.

I cannot provide that information at this time, but I appreciate that Sue Webber wants the information, so I am happy to speak to the minister who is responsible, Angela Constance, to ensure that she provides a full account to the member.