Chamber and committees

I understand and am grateful.

Good morning. Michelle Macleod, on exactly that point, one of the first points in the foreword to your report notes that your

“workload has increased substantially over the past decade.”

This afternoon, MSPs will consider the Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill, in which the PIRC features heavily and which will increase your responsibility. In order to help members with our deliberations, what impact do you project that the bill, if it is passed in its current form, will have on your already increased workload?

That really will be interesting. However, as colleagues will probably want to ask about the strategic review, I will back down on that, if that is okay.

I have one final question. Your report is very good, and I enjoyed looking through it. However, there is no doubt that what you and your colleagues have just said is concerning, because the Parliament has to be very careful about how it spends money. I did not immediately see, from the report, the horizon scanning on, for example, the Police (Ethics, Conduct and Scrutiny) (Scotland) Bill. Why not? That is a genuine question, because it seems to me that any reader would be helped by that.

Is there anything else that we need to be aware of—on legislation, for example—that is not in the report and could impact on your finances?

I would like to press you on the costings. Page 16 of your report details the finances, which are considerable and have increased by £500,000 in the past year. Staffing costs, which are clearly required based on what you have just said, make up 84 per cent of your spend. Can you tell the committee more about that?

I hear what you say about the financial memorandum and the difficulties of accurately making projections, but MSPs will have to consider such issues. What is the financial impact of the bill on the PIRC? The Scottish Government has had difficulty in making accurate projections in financial memoranda, so have the extra costs been sufficiently accounted for to give you comfort, particularly given Phil Chapman’s comments about the changes to corroboration?

You heard me ask about the data dashboard, and I am pleased to say that ACC Paton gave a pretty positive report. We know from one of your earlier letters that it was intended to be rolled out by the end of last year, but I think that I heard earlier that it is not quite there yet. Will the data arising from the data dashboard be shared with the Scottish Government, or is it operational and only for Police Scotland? What is your view on the roll-out if the timescale has not been met?

Good morning to the cabinet secretary and her officials. Cabinet secretary, you will have heard in the previous session—you will no doubt have considered what was said—that ASPS and the SPF have, in their submissions to the committee, highlighted several concerns. One of those is that the police, rather than other organisations, are having to lead on this area.

I give you the opportunity to give your views on that and to say whether you think that there is sufficient input and leadership from other organisations and portfolio areas to address mental health and policing.

In 2021, the Lord Advocate made a statement on diversion from prosecution. She stated that recorded police warnings could be given for possession of any class of drugs. I appreciate that you might need to come back to me on this, but do you have statistics to hand on how many such warnings for possession were given pre and post that announcement and positioning? Is that broken down for different substances? Crucially for our purposes today, are you aware of any direct impact of that positioning on policing time spent on people experiencing harmful substance abuse?

I am very grateful for that—thank you.

I am very grateful—thank you.

I have one final question, which is also for ACC Paton. You have talked about the initiatives that are going on and the positive impact that they are having. However, both ASPS and the SPF, in their evidence to the committee, mentioned the right care, right person approach, which is used throughout most of England and Wales, I think—those are my words, not theirs. What is your view on that model, and should it be adopted by Police Scotland?