Chamber and committees

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.

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—

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.

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

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.

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 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.