Chamber and committees

As I said in my initial answer, a range of stakeholders were present at the meeting that I convened on 11 August. As you would imagine, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service was at the meeting. I specifically asked it to review the location of its assets for exactly the reason that Jackie Baillie mentioned and to look at future arrangements. She was right to raise the situation at Loch Lomond.

However, there is no simple single answer to the challenge of drowning prevention. There is obviously a role for education, signage and life-saving equipment. All water can be dangerous, but Jackie Baillie is right to point out that there are locations where the dangers are more significant, where it is especially important that there is clear warning signage and appropriate life-saving equipment.

I will again speak to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service about the particular incident that Jackie Baillie mentioned and will come back to her.

I would be happy to meet the member to discuss that. On 13 March 2020, I asked my officials to write to all local authorities in Scotland to ascertain the extent to which the antisocial use of motorcycles and quad bikes was a problem in their areas and how they were addressing that. All 32 local authorities replied to that request. The antisocial use of motorcycles and quad bikes is not a widespread problem across Scotland, though six local authorities reported on-going problems with antisocial use of motorcycles or quad bikes in their areas and four said that that was a seasonal occurrence. I would be happy to meet the member to discuss that.

The Scottish Government takes the issue of water safety very seriously and welcomed the drowning prevention strategy when it was published by Water Safety Scotland in 2018. I thank Clare Adamson for her contribution to the strategy and her continued support for Water Safety Scotland, which has a lynchpin role in this area.

As Clare Adamson will know, the Scottish Government continues to provide funding, via the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, to support the operation of Water Safety Scotland. In addition, this year, the Scottish Government has worked with partners to support a number of water safety activities and campaigns.

We also work closely with Water Safety Scotland and other partners to support the recommendations in its drowning prevention strategy and initiatives that can help to raise awareness of the hazards around water and reduce deaths from accidental drowning. On 11 August, I convened a meeting with a range of key stakeholders to drive further action around delivery of the drowning prevention strategy, and I will convene a follow-up meeting later this month.

I am well aware of the risk to public safety that is caused by careless, inconsiderate and antisocial driving. That is why I fully support Police Scotland and its partners in dealing with the misuse of vehicles in an appropriate and proportionate way. Local policing teams are ideally placed to engage with members of the local community to identify where the misuse of vehicles is causing distress to the public. That ensures that those areas can be prioritised for proactive action to prevent future instances and identify and deal with those who are engaged in the misuse of vehicles.

No, convener. I think that the cabinet secretary has covered the matter.

I read that, I think, four out of five women in prison have had a serious head injury, particularly from domestic abuse, which is quite a shocking statistic. Last week, I visited the part of Polmont that holds the women prisoners. I also visited Cornton Vale. I looked at the old prison and met some of the staff and some women who were in custody, and then I went to have a look at the new Cornton Vale that is being built.

We all accept that there are some very complex cases involving women in custody who have very challenging needs. The Prison Service, in particular, accepts that, and it works very hard to keep those women safe and to ensure that they get the facilities and treatment that they need.

The Scottish Government’s investment in the new style of prison estate for female prisoners will make a huge difference. The new Cornton Vale estate has been designed specifically to assist people with their mental health and their other challenges. There is a lot of light. It is airy. There is a lot more space. We have talked about activities and education for prisoners. Obviously, that has been impacted by Covid and the fact that there is not a lot of space in some of the traditional prison areas, so the new facilities will make a huge difference.

I am not sure whether the committee is aware of the community custody units. I visited one in Glasgow and one specifically for women prisoners in Dundee a couple of weeks ago. Again, it is about signposting the move towards adapting the experience of being in custody but, more specifically, responding to the challenges of female prisoners and the way they present and the things that they might need in order to treat them. Then, we hope to progress them and enable them to transition and build skills in order to go back into the community and, we hope, not back into prison again.

I am afraid that I do not have any information on that. One of our officials might be able to give you an update.

Thank you, convener, and good morning. I will be very brief. I agree with the cabinet secretary’s comments about the desire and potential for collaborative working in those aspects of the portfolio for which I am responsible. Anyone who knew me in the previous session will know that I always try to build consensus where possible.

I endorse what the cabinet secretary said about the important contribution of the legal profession as well as that of the third sector, including organisations that work with the victims of crime in our justice system. The engagement and involvement of the legal profession and the third sector, along with other justice agencies, will be vital as the system recovers and renews following the pandemic’s impact.

Returning as the Minister for Community Safety, I am pleased to be taking forward a number of initiatives from the previous session such as those to modernise and strengthen the contribution of our fire and rescue service, reform legal aid and regulate the legal profession. In addition, as the cabinet secretary mentioned, I have been asked by the First Minister to take on the specific role of looking to improve the experience of women in our justice system. Many elements of the justice system including community justice, prisons and courts are designed around the needs of men or the system itself but, as we know, women and children are often disproportionately affected as victims of sexual offending or by the impact of imprisonment.

In taking forward the role, I want to draw on all the relevant evidence and expertise from a wide range of sources and individuals. I look forward to engaging with the committee as I work on that agenda and the rest of our programme for the current session of Parliament.

I think that everyone would agree that the rape statistics that the member has quoted are concerning. Obviously, we have taken quite a bit of action around tackling sexual offending, including things such as improving our laws and encouraging more victims to come forward. The cabinet secretary and Neil Rennick have set out some things that we are doing in that regard. We have the planned spend of £100 million over three years for the prevention of violence against women and girls, which is key.

Obviously, tackling the issue is a key Government responsibility, and we are committed to taking it seriously and looking at what we can do. I see it as a piece of cross-Government work. It is not something that we in justice would be able to tackle alone; I think that we will have to work with colleagues in health, equalities and so on. That cross-portfolio work is going on at the moment.

I echo what was said about Lady Dorrian’s report. It contains six recommendations and I am sure that we will be able to find consensus on some of them. We know that we have consensus across Parliament on anonymity for rape complainers, but there might not be consensus on some of the other ones.

We need to consider the situation carefully and decide how we can proceed. However, we have committed to take forward the recommendation on the anonymity of rape complainers—that was in our manifesto.

Our work on issues across this area has been on-going. I say to the member, and to others in the chamber, that we absolutely recognise how destructive periods of remand are to individuals, families and communities. Remand should be used only when it is absolutely necessary to protect public safety and where no appropriate alternative exists.

I am determined to make progress, but I hope that the member will accept that we have made some progress on the issue and on the wider piece for women and justice. For instance, I point to our work on the presumption against short sentences, on the new women’s prison estate and on electronically monitored bail, and our investment in community justice. All those things are part of a picture, or a step forward. I will consider what more we can do, and I invite the member to work with me on that.

The member requested an update on bail supervision. We have invested in bail supervision services, which is an important alternative to remand. Obviously, those services are run by local authority justice social work services. Since April 2019, additional funding of £550,000 has been provided to increase capacity for bail supervision. The latest statistics show encouraging evidence of the impact, with the highest level of use of bail supervision in seven years. In 2019-20, a total of 470 bail supervision cases were commenced, which was a 40 per cent increase on 2018-19.