Chamber and committees

Stephen Imrie will probably articulate that better than me, so I will hand over to him to outline the next steps.

I think that we are all on the same page; I just want to be absolutely clear about what our recommendation is, so we will come back to that at a later point.

My only response to that is that numbers can change day to day or week to week, so, if you are looking for that specific information, you should bear that in mind.

Thank you, Katy. We can have a wider discussion about that under agenda item 6.

Collette Stevenson wants to come in.

I am aware that that has been a gradual trend in the open prison estate’s capacity, so I would be happy to follow that up and ask for some more information.

Does any member want to make any further points on any of the correspondence?

I think that it was, but I have forgotten what the answer was. I will bring in Stephen Imrie, who will remember.

If you have specific action points in relation to any other correspondence, please flag those so that we can note them and take them away.

Agenda item 5 is consideration of a negative instrument, the Discontinuance of Cornton Vale Prison (Scotland) Order 2023 (SSI 2023/132). I refer members to paper 3.

Before we discuss the instrument, I thank Teresa Medhurst and her team at the Scottish Prison Service for a really interesting and informative visit to the new national women’s prison at HMP YOI Stirling earlier this week. It was good to visit the prison before it opens and learn a bit more about how it will differ from the previous facility at Cornton Vale, particularly around the more trauma-informed and person-centred environment that the women will be in when the prison opens.

The purpose of the instrument before us today is to formally discontinue the prison of Cornton Vale on 6 June 2023, which is the day that the order comes into force. The discontinuance order is the formal legal act that is required to reflect the fact that a prison has ceased to operate. Do members have any recommendations that they wish to make in relation to the instrument, which will otherwise come into force?

Thank you very much, minister. A lot has been covered there. We will now move straight to the questioning, which I will open.

The extent and reach of the bill’s provisions are welcome. It is good to see these much-needed changes to our legislative provision on preventing economic crime and protecting our corporate infrastructure, with particular reference to Scotland.

I want to pick up on a couple of the provisions. I think that I have got my head round the first of them, having spent a bit of time reading through the papers ahead of this meeting. It relates to the provision that will create new exemptions from the principal money-laundering offences, to reduce unnecessary reporting by businesses carrying out transactions on behalf of their customers. I assume that that is possibly where the level of compliance is a little disproportionate.

I can bring you in first to respond, minister, and then I will come to my second question, if I may.

A very good morning, and welcome to the Criminal Justice Committee’s 16th meeting in 2023. There are no apologies.

Our first agenda item is a decision on taking business in private. Do we agree to take in private item 8, which is consideration of our draft annual report?

Members indicated agreement.