Chamber and committees

John Swinney would like to come in, and then we will move on.

Before we move on to our final topic—prisons—I will ask the cabinet secretary about some of the evidence that the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has given to the committee. It has set out increased costs for developing evidence on commission, a greater number of solemn cases being prosecuted, the additional work that will be required through the changes that the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice (Scotland) Bill will introduce, and the increase in death reports and investigations. What priority does the cabinet secretary give to those individual areas of work and ensuring that the required resources are in place?

Can I have members’ approval for the clerks and me to publish a short factual report on both our SSIs today?

Members indicated agreement.

Do members have any questions or comments? Nothing at all? Thank you. In that case, I invite the cabinet secretary to move motion S6M-10537.

Motion moved,

That the Criminal Justice Committee recommends that the International Organisations (Immunities and Privileges) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 2) Order 2023 be approved.—[Angela Constance]

Motion agreed to.

Good morning, and welcome to the 29th meeting in 2023 of the Criminal Justice Committee. We have received no apologies. Katy Clark will join us shortly.

Our first item of business is to continue our pre-budget scrutiny of the Scottish Government’s 2024-25 budget. I am pleased to welcome Teresa Medhurst, the chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, and Gerry O’Donnell, its interim director of finance. [Inaudible.]—for their written submission.

We have about 68 minutes for this session. I will begin with some general questions. Will you outline the main challenges relating to spending on prisons in this financial year? What is your view on the budget that you will need for 2024-25?

Thank you very much indeed. I open up questions to other members.

I know that you are very passionate about this but if you could just maybe—

I know that it is important to discuss this but I am want to make sure that we are focusing on pre-budget scrutiny. I am quite happy for Ms Medhurst and Mr O’Donnell to follow up in writing specific queries that relate to staff. This discussion is about the budget.

We will move to questions around policing. We have three more areas that members are interested in—police, courts and prisons—but we have a wee bit of time.

Do any other members want to come in on courts? I think that Pauline McNeill does.