Chamber and committees

My response to victims is that we, and the police, are aware of those shortcomings. The research and the inspector’s report are very important, as was the report that came out last week on early implementation of regulations in the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018. It showed that progress has been made and that people are more likely to report domestic abuse because of that new and world-leading legislation.

We know that we have more to do. The policies are in place: we must see further progress in dealing with those. We will continue to fund the police in order to ensure that they do that. If I am correct, there was a 1 per cent reduction in instances last year, but we know that many incidents are not reported and that we are seeing the tip of the iceberg. We will continue to tackle that.

Police Scotland undertakes excellent work in dealing with domestic abuse incidents, but the recent report by His Majesty’s chief inspector of constabulary and comments about the victim experience highlight that more must be done.

Although operational matters are for the chief constable, we remain fully committed to using the available resources to support the delivery of effective and responsive policing. We continue making changes to make it easier for people to report incidents and for perpetrators to be appropriately dealt with, helping us to realise our vision of Scotland as a place where women and girls live free from violence and abuse.

I do not know whether the member wants to hear the response or to shout instead.

Since 2006-07, we have seen a 25 per cent reduction in non-sexual violent crime, although, as I said in my original answer, we accept that there is much more to do. To help address that, we will continue to fund the police at a higher level in Scotland. Across almost every rank, we will continue to pay our police more in Scotland, and we will continue to have more police per capita in Scotland than there are in the rest of the United Kingdom. As I have just mentioned, we have increased the budget, despite the constraints that we have because of the Conservatives’ economic mismanagement in England and Wales.

There are two points to make in answer to Mr Choudhury’s question. The first is that, as I have mentioned, some of the mental health support also covers support with regard to financial issues. It is very important that police officers are not subjected to extreme financial pressures because of the other dangers of that, particularly in relation to the police’s role. That is done within the police—Police Scotland is the employer and it provides that support.

The Government provides support by making sure that we have the best-paid police officers in the UK. I mentioned that the lowest level—a starting police constable—receives £5,000 a year more than they would in the rest of the UK. That is a substantial amount more than is paid elsewhere. I am not saying that it is the complete answer, but it will help with the cost of living crisis. We will continue to make sure that we support our police officers to a greater extent than we see officers being supported elsewhere in the UK.

Of course, the SCTS has a degree of autonomy and independence in relation to the matter. The scheduling of trials is its responsibility. It tries to mitigate the impact of non-attendance by overbooking to minimise the court time that is wasted. A number of specific measures are also taken—including the summary case management pilot, which is being undertaken in Paisley, Dundee and Hamilton, I think—to ensure that, if time becomes available because of non-appearance, another case can take the place of that hearing. That minimises the time that is wasted for the courts. It does not directly address the point of concern for Mark Griffin’s constituent. However, the management of court cases is for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service to undertake.

To go back to the original point about cost, the last substantial estimate that was made was done by Audit Scotland. It admitted the difficulties that there were in trying to get a definitive figure but it might be interesting to Mark Griffin and might partly answer his question to know that Audit Scotland arrived at a figure of around 5 per cent for the cost of churn—that is, cases that were not taken. I am happy to provide him with more information in writing about the absolute number if we have the daily number for cases that have been subject to non-attendance.

On special measures, the consultation to which Fiona Hyslop referred suggested following the model, which is not yet in force, in the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 for family cases. Under that model, a witness will be deemed vulnerable if they have a civil protection order against another party or if the other party has committed, or is accused of committing, certain criminal offences against the witness. In those circumstances, the court will have to make an order authorising special measures or order the witness to give evidence without special measures.

The 2020 act also makes provision so that special measures can be made available in non-evidential hearings. At the moment, special measures in civil cases depend on the hearing being evidential—that is, with witnesses. Many civil hearings are not of that nature, so we will consider responses to the consultation to address the point that Fiona Hyslop has made.

The managing of non-attendance is an operational matter for the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service. It does not record the costs of non-attendance, so an assessment of average costs is not possible. That said, we know that the costs are substantial and the SCTS employs a range of measures to minimise them. The chief executive of the SCTS will write to the member in response to a similar written question that he has lodged.

The Scottish Government welcomes the preventative approach, including proactive measures such as wellbeing assessments, that Police Scotland is adopting to support the health and wellbeing of its workforce.

Police officers and staff can access a range of services to care for their psychological, physical, social and financial wellbeing through Police Scotland’s “Your wellbeing matters” programme. Through the trauma risk management programme, post-trauma support is offered to all officers and staff who are directly involved in potentially traumatic incidents. Police Scotland has also signed up to the mental health at work commitment and standards.

I have previously laid out in the chamber what else we are doing, and I will do so again as we move through the bill process for the police complaints standards initiative that we are taking forward in the proposed bill. The mental health at work commitment standards have, as I mentioned, been signed up to by Police Scotland. They include prioritisation of mental health in the workplace and the taking of a proactive approach to organisational culture—to go back to Sharon Dowey’s point about the forthcoming bill—in order to drive positive mental health outcomes. Those form part of Blue Light Together’s package of support to change workplace culture with regard to mental health and to provide specialist mental health support to emergency responders and their families.

Police Scotland is also working with Lifelines Scotland to provide mental health and wellbeing training, which aims to raise awareness and to support the emotional and psychological wellbeing of the police workforce.