Chamber and committees

Although the latest recorded crime statistics remain at their lowest level since 1974, showing that Scotland is a safer place since this Government took office, as I pointed out to Craig Hoy, when he asked the same question on 21 September last year, there is much more to do. That is why the recent Scottish budget includes plans to invest almost £3.4 billion across the justice system in 2023-24, with a 5.8 per cent increase in the resource budget, which equates to an additional £165 million. That will strengthen and reform vital front-line services, provide support for victims and witnesses and tackle the underlying drivers of offending.

Absolutely. I am not trying to pretend that just being better paid than police officers in other jurisdictions is enough to deal with some of the mental health pressures—of course that is not the case. However, our officers are the best paid in the United Kingdom, and we recognise the hard work and dedication of the police workforce across Scotland. The starting salary for a constable here is around £5,000 more than it is in England and Wales.

In recognition of the importance of policing, we will provide an additional £80 million to the Scottish Police Authority in 2023-24, which will take the police budget to £1.45 billion. That additional funding will continue to ensure that there is a stable basis from which to improve delivery of policing and to enhance the safety and security of communities across Scotland.

I agree with the first two parts of Katy Clark’s question. First, there has been an increase in sexual crimes—the number is 6 per cent higher than it was in the year ending September 2021. I also agree with the point that she made about the vast number of sexual crimes that are not reported. We can agree on those two things, but we do not agree on Crown Office funding, which has been increased again—this is from memory, although I am happy to correct it if it is wrong—by more than 3 per cent.

Katy Clark knows full well the constraints of the miserable settlement that we receive from the UK Government, which is, of course, related to its economic mismanagement. Therefore, within a very constrained environment, we are putting more money into the area. I have already mentioned that we fund the police—not only in relation to numbers but in relation to pay—to a greater extent than is done elsewhere. That should help to drive down a problem that is common across the world in many different jurisdictions—a problem that I recognise.

Nonetheless, it remains the case that crime in Scotland has fallen significantly under this situation. Scotland is a safer place since this Government took office; recorded crime is at the lowest level seen since 1974; and homicides are extremely low compared with historical trends.

We have also seen a 25 per cent reduction in non-sexual violent crime, as mentioned by Liz—

No, because I do not have that information. However, I can get it and am happy to correspond with Mr Findlay to provide it.

We have had discussions with the SCTS and the Scottish Prison Service, because the matter sometimes involves the transportation of prisoners to court, which can be an issue. There have been issues relating to the transportation of prisoners, not least because of some of the problems with employment that the contractor is currently experiencing due to the constrained labour market.

On costs, I refer Beatrice Wishart to the answer that I gave Mark Griffin. I am happy to look into the issue further to see whether, despite the fact that it is difficult to bear down on the figures and identify the costs—Audit Scotland found that, too—there are identifiable costs relating to people travelling to court, which she mentioned. If that information is available, I will supply it in writing.

I announced the launch of the scheme to fund the cost of replacing medals for eligible veterans during the remembrance debate in November last year. I am happy to say that the first veteran to be supported through the scheme has now received his medals. In the meantime, my officials have been working with the Ministry of Defence to formalise the arrangements for the scheme. I should mention that I had asked the MOD if it would do that in the first instance, but it refused to do so. We are now formalising the arrangements with the MOD to fund, on an on-going basis, replacement of medals for veterans who are resident in Scotland.

Of course, Jenni Minto has pointed out that we are, so far, the first and only Administration within the United Kingdom whose medal replacement costs are being met by the Government. We were the first to have a veterans commissioner and—to get to the point of Jenni Minto’s question—we are also the first to have a veterans commissioner who is female. The role is vital for listening to and representing veterans. In turn, the commissioner’s recommendations to Government help to ensure that veterans’ voices are part of policy development.

The new commissioner is currently involved in the hearing veterans’ voices initiative, which seeks to develop better ways of engaging directly with veterans and their families. That will help to build on the work that has been done by the Scottish Government to engage with the veterans community in developing and refreshing our decisions strategy and action plan, as will our regular engagement with veterans stakeholders to ensure that the issues that veterans face are heard and understood.

The Scottish Government’s victim-centred approach fund supports third sector organisations to provide practical and emotional support to victims, survivors and witnesses of crime in Scotland in order to achieve better long-term outcomes.

Although there is no direct role for victim support and victim support organisations in civil proceedings, the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 contains provisions on special measures in some family cases to protect vulnerable witnesses and parties.

In last year’s consultation on improving victims’ experiences of the justice system, we proposed extending the provisions on special measures in the 2020 act to civil cases generally.

We have had two days.