Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government and the Scottish Prison Service are committed to ensuring that women who leave custody receive the support that they need to integrate successfully. The new female estate, which includes two innovative community custody units, supports that commitment and is underpinned by a revised strategy for women in custody, which is gender specific and trauma informed. The CCUs support a change to rehabilitation of women in custody by linking them to local services and preparing them for their eventual return to the community. We also provide £1.4 million per year to fund Shine, which is the national third sector partnership that provides support to women leaving custody and remand.

The Scottish Government is undertaking an emergency budget review to assess all opportunities to redirect additional resources to those people who are most in need, to reduce the burdens on business and to stimulate the Scottish economy.

Further support is available to the armed forces community—I know that the member will be aware of that, given how instrumental he was in ensuring that it happened—including the £500,000 provided annually through the Scottish veterans fund, which launched earlier this month. This year, the fund prioritises projects that offer support to those veterans who are affected by the cost of living crisis.

We will continue to engage with stakeholders across the community more widely to develop our response.

The Scottish Government recognises that everyone has the right to be, and to feel, safe in their own community, which is why we are committed to tackling all forms of antisocial behaviour. Police Scotland and the local authorities lead on interventions and have a range of options available to them in tackling antisocial behaviour.

We recognise that no single approach will tackle all antisocial behaviour. That is why we support a suite of activities, which includes antisocial behaviour orders and fixed-penalty notices alongside diversionary and early intervention activities. I was heavily involved in that area when I was a council leader, and I know that different approaches can be taken in different local authority areas.

For our part, we are committed to ensuring that all agencies have the powers and resources that they need. We are always willing—as, I am sure, are the police—to discuss any changes that could improve prevention and to respond to antisocial behaviour with all relevant bodies.

In June 2022, a refreshed equally safe delivery plan was published, outlining the joint commitment of the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities to preventing and eradicating all forms of violence against women and girls and to tackling the underpinning attitudes that perpetuate it.

Through the justice portfolio and the victim-centred approach fund, we have invested £18.5 million in specialist advocacy support for survivors of gender-based violence, and the delivering equally safe fund is providing £19 million per year to support projects that are focused on early intervention and support.

It is only through fundamental societal change that women can be fully protected.

As has been referred to previously, the criminal justice reform bill in the programme for government will aim to improve the experience of victims in the justice system and will help to deliver reforms, building on the recent consultation on improving victims’ experience of the justice system.

The member will be aware that recommendations from Lady Dorrian’s review, on improving the management of sexual offence cases, will be addressed. That will include proposals for the use of, for example, a statutory right to anonymity for complainers in sexual offence cases.

On a related matter, the member will know that we intend to abolish the not proven verdict. That and a number of other workstreams that the minister is involved with will continue. Of course, the possibility of further legislation will also be considered.

I have just said that I am unable to comment on individual cases. However, I confirm that Police Scotland approaches its job firmly on the basis of human rights legislation and, of course, operates under the principles of policing by consent. It has confirmed that there will be a formal debrief process for operation unicorn, and I understand that the operation will be discussed at the Scottish Police Authority board meeting later this month, which is the appropriate forum for that. I understand that that will include reviewing at least one of the incidents that took place while the operation was active.

I will meet the chief constable tomorrow. I will discuss the issues with him, with a view, as ever, to what lessons can be learned from the operation and how those can be applied to future policing operations. I will also congratulate him and his force on a superb job, notwithstanding the issues that have been raised by the member.

For the member’s information, whenever police officers from other jurisdictions come to serve and help under mutual aid arrangements with Police Scotland, control always rests with the chief constable and, of course, with the Lord Advocate. Similarly, Police Scotland had 1,000 officers in London and throughout England and Wales to help with events this week. At that time, they were under the control of local police chiefs. That is the way that it should be done. Of course, in Scotland, the chief constable will always be in control.

It will be up to the Scottish Police Authority how the discussions that it has with the chief constable are discussed and the extent to which they are made public. The chief constable will provide an update on the policing activities that supported the operation. I have already mentioned the extent to which that will be subject to review, but it will be for the SPA to make such decisions.

The figures that the member mentioned are produced independently of the Scottish Government, so we are right to place some faith in them. They show, as the member mentioned, a substantial reduction.

The member mentioned drug deaths. My colleague Angela Constance is perhaps better placed to respond to this, but it is true to say that there is a lag between when those deaths take place and when people first start taking drugs.

It is the police’s responsibility to provide the reassurance that the member mentions. Notwithstanding the fact that members of the public have come to speak to Mr Kerr, there is some reassurance in the police figures, which show that there is a reduction in drug dealing.

However, through the different methods that I mentioned, it is possible for people to raise those issues—either with the SPA or individually, as they have done with Mr Kerr. I encourage people to do that. The police are always willing to listen and they rely on that local intelligence to find the best deployment of their force. That might also be a factor: the more information that the police have, the more effective they can be.

I hope that that is helpful to Mr Kerr, but I am happy to have a further discussion if he would find that helpful.

The bill will progress the ambition and priorities that are set out in “The Vision for Justice in Scotland”. It will deliver reforms building on our recent consultation on improving victims’ experiences of the justice system and the recommendations from Lady Dorrian’s review on improving the management of sexual offence cases. The bill will include proposals to introduce a statutory right to anonymity for complainers in sexual offence cases and to abolish the not proven verdict—a verdict that people do not understand, that can stigmatise the acquitted and may cause additional trauma for victims.

In the programme for government, we have laid out the proposals to have that brought forward this year. That verdict has been used for centuries. It is also true that we resisted the member’s and other members’ pleas to scrap that verdict that more quickly, because we think that there are other parts of the criminal justice system that will have to change in order to accommodate the change.

The consideration of those matters is supported by the Law Society of Scotland, the Faculty of Advocates and the senators of the College of Justice in Scotland, and we have to take people with us on such a fundamental change. That is why it is right that we consider other aspects as well as the not proven verdict, which is what we have done up until this point and what we will continue to do. However, for the first time, a Government has said that it will abolish the not proven verdict in Scotland, which has stood for centuries. I think that that should be welcomed.