Chamber and committees

That does not necessarily relate to the nature of the crimes of which they are accused. It does to some extent; I realise that.

I am a little bit confused. What is it in the test that is proposed that does not go far enough to capture more of the people about whom you are concerned? I say that because I think that the discussion with the committee is also meant to be a bit of a dialogue. I am happy to be questioned, but we are genuinely looking for other people’s ideas about this, so if there is a category of people that we are not going to capture with those proposals, I am happy to hear that.

Since you asked Philip Lamont about a contradiction in his statement, maybe we should hear from him too.

That is a fairly good prediction. I think that Mr Findlay proposed an amendment previously. We are looking at how we can proceed at stage 2, as well.

The Scottish Government recognises that mental health services face significant pressures and the impact that that has on other services, including policing. We are working with partners across the health and justice sectors to address those issues. In addition, in 2023-24, we are directly investing £290 million in mental health support and services. That represents an increase of £252 million from the updated 2022-23 budget, which followed the emergency budget review. On top of that, we have provided £250,000 over three years to fund trauma specialists to develop a framework for training staff to create a more trauma-informed and trauma-responsive justice system.

I am glad that the member mentioned the issue, because it is one of the most important aspects of the justice system, although it probably gets fewer headlines. If, at the end that period, we are in a situation in which training has been undertaken by people across the justice system, in all its different agencies, and people have been informed as to how to provide a trauma-informed response, that will be one of the biggest achievements of our vision.

I have made a commitment that justice ministers will receive such training. I have already received training in that area, and I am sure that I will receive further training. We want it to be recognised, right across the system, that people who interact with the justice system will often have suffered trauma, and that we must not add to that trauma.

I thank Kenneth Gibson for his question on a very important area.

Victims of violent crime are supported in different ways during the pre-trial period. The Scottish Government funds a range of victim support organisations, both generally and for specific crime types. Those organisations are able to engage during that time and to provide practical and emotional support. In addition, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service provides the victim information and advice service.

I am happy to say that Emma Roddick raises an important issue on behalf of one of her constituents. I hope that, in turn, she will appreciate that I cannot comment on the specific decisions made in the criminal courts.

In general terms, I add that there are powers for the court to consider further conditions—as they are termed—of bail, which are designed to help compliance with the standard conditions. Further conditions can include things such as an accused person having to change address if the court deems it necessary.

In addition to that, although, as I said, I am not able to publicly comment on individual decisions taken by the courts, I am happy to meet Emma Roddick to understand more about the individual case that she has raised.

I certainly agree that shifting the balance between custody and justice in the community must be one of our key priorities. To do so, we must ensure that the relevant community justice services are available, consistent and of high quality. That reflects a discussion that I had with the Criminal Justice Committee this morning.

Although funding for community justice services is constrained by the current economic circumstances, we have continued to protect the community justice budget. Additional funding of £11.8 million was provided in 2021-22 to bolster capacity and support recovery from the pandemic. This year, that figure has increased to £15 million, which includes specific investment of £3.2 million to support bail assessment and supervision services. We are directly supporting an increase in the provision of bail supervision. Such services are now running in 30 local authority areas.

In total, we invest around £134 million in community justice services. That will be maintained next year as well.

We are replaying some of the discussion that we had this morning. I mentioned the fact that I think that if we can get the conditions under which bail is approved on to the terms that are proposed in the bill, that in itself can help to reduce risk, reduce offending while on bail, and reduce reoffending at the other end of a custodial sentence. We are taking that forward.

As I mentioned in response to a previous question, it is also true to say that we have increased this year, and will increase next year, the resources to local authorities, which are often the bail supervision authorities looking after that. Yes, we have more to do, and we have to ensure that that increases.

However, as I also said this morning, it is also true to say that, in order for us to meaningfully judge conviction rates for those on bail, we have to compare them with the conviction rates for those who serve a full custodial sentence or who are remanded in custody in order to make sense of how that affects the situation.

Regardless of that, we of course have to try and minimise the number of convictions of those on bail. The track record on the resources that we have put in, given the general financial circumstances last year and next year, shows that we are very serious about doing that.

I have said that the arrangements that I have mentioned are also beneficial to police officers. From previous answers that I have given in the chamber, Russell Findlay will be aware of the specific support that we provide to police officers. In addition, we are supporting the development of enhanced mental health pathways for those who are in distress or in need of mental health support. One of the pressures on police officers, as Russell Findlay rightly identified, is in knowing how best to deal with people with mental health issues when they present to the police and not to become further traumatised by that.

Action 15 of the Scottish Government’s mental health strategy is a commitment to fund 800 additional mental health workers, to increase capacity in key locations where people might need help the most, including police custody suites. By the time we have met that commitment, we expect to have 958.9 whole-time equivalent mental health posts across the piece.

We are providing additional support and capacity to police officers to help them to deal with an issue the incidence of which has, admittedly, increased over recent years, and to ensure that they are able to draw on the resources of the health service as well.

In emergency department settings, we have 35.6 whole-time equivalent posts in police custody suites. Police Scotland has been a key national partner in the development of the innovative distress brief intervention—DBI—programme, which gives front-line services a new option for supporting people who present to them who are in emotional distress, but who do not require emergency clinical intervention.

For the member’s information, as at 30 November 2022, the DBI programme had supported more than 36,000 people since its launch in 2016. Referrals to it from Police Scotland account for 9 per cent of that figure. Up to June 2022, a total of 1,238 Police Scotland staff had undertaken DBI training.

I should also mention the redesign of the urgent care programme, which is relevant in this context.

In relation to the member’s question about where we are with the 800-plus figure, because that goes across a number of portfolios, I would be happy to write to him with updated information.

Since the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2019 was passed, the Scottish Government has procured a new national contract for provision of electronic monitoring services, and we have now commenced the vast majority of the act. On 17 May 2022, through the act, we commenced two new policy uses: allowing electronic monitoring to be used as part of bail and allowing it to be used as part of community payback orders at first disposal.

Progress continues to be made towards expanding the use of electronic monitoring across a broader range of licences and community orders. In the past few months, we have seen a record high in the number of individuals who are being electronically monitored in Scotland.