Chamber and committees

I acknowledge the report that Katy Clark mentions. I think that it is the report from last week, which has a small sample of around 69 people. It says very good things about the introduction of the new legislation, but it also points out where else we have to go.

If we look at the recommendations, we can see what has to be done to improve things. For example, it is very important to make sure that the gender of interviewing officers is right for the victims and that those officers are trained in how to deal with domestic abuse situations. The biggest challenge perhaps relates to prevention. This is a very hard matter to deal with, but if we can get to a situation where prevention can happen, especially in relation to possible repeat offenders, we will make massive progress.

I think that, between us, the police and what is happening in the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, where real priority is being given to dealing with this during the recovery from the pandemic, we can make further progress, and so we should.

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.

I agree with much of what Jamie Greene has said. I am happy to acknowledge his point about the progress that is still to be made, as would the police. I think that the chief constable would say that, when he started, the police response to domestic abuse was to send a constable. He would say that there has been massive progress. There used to be a closed door, beyond which the police would not go. That has fundamentally changed.

However, I acknowledge, and the police would acknowledge, that there is a cultural issue that must also be dealt with. The police are dealing with that issue through training and through the leadership that we have seen over a number of years from deputy chief constable Fiona Taylor and from the chief constable. That is the main thing that can be done.

The inspector’s 14 recommendations touch on issues that the police are well aware of. They know that they must do more. We will have further discussions with the chief constable and senior officers at our next meeting in two or three weeks’ time.

Pam Gosal makes a very important point. We have dealt with this through the victims task force, whereby all the different groups that are involved in the area have said that we have to ensure that everyone who is involved in every part of the justice system has undergone trauma-informed training to make sure that they provide a trauma-informed response, as Pam Gosal mentioned. I have done my training, such as it is so far, and I am sure that I will do further training.

Pam Gosal is right to say that, for the victim, it is about the entire journey through the justice system. If they find that one part of the system is working very well and everyone is very well trained and informed, but they then get moved on to another part where that is not the case, their experience is going to be a bad one.

I am not saying that this is going to be done quickly. It is part of a justice vision that will take years to bring about. However, the biggest change that we can make with the justice vision is to get to a situation where the entire system is trauma informed and person centred, and where people get a trauma-responsive reaction from the agencies. That is what we should be trying to achieve and that is what we are setting out to do.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.