Chamber and committees

The cabinet secretary has gone into some detail about the independence of the Sentencing Council, and I understand that it consulted a range of stakeholders, including victims’ groups, when formulating the guidance. What action is the Scottish Government is taking to improve victims’ experiences of the justice system—in particular, to ensure that their voices are heard?

To ask the First Minister, in light of his recent visit to the Port of Aberdeen, what engagement he has had with the business community since taking office. (S6F-02027)

That is very good to hear, because, like you, I am very interested in the process of children coming into custody. I am pretty confident that, when that can be avoided and an alternative option can be utilised, Police Scotland uses those alternative routes. It is interesting to hear about the conference focusing on that particular issue.

I have another couple of questions. I go back to the provision in the bill on secure care being the default for under-18s. Members, including Fulton MacGregor, asked about that age being a starting point. I am interested in whether one of the reasons why the Scottish Government is not yet extending that provision to 18 to 20-year-olds, for example, is that, if we look at the cohorts of young people who are offenders, we see that there are, I understand, currently more than 150 18 to 20-year-olds, as opposed to five 16 and 17-year-olds, who are held in prison. An extension would have significant implications for resourcing and the availability of physical accommodation. Might that be challenging, or will the Government commit to broadening the age range of young people who go into secure care in the future?

That brings us to the end of our time with the witnesses. We will have a short suspension to allow them to leave.

You are right. We have not got that detail yet, but we can certainly ask for it.

Are members happy with the actions that are set out in the paper? We can follow up on that aspect.

Members indicated agreement.

Our next item of business is consideration of correspondence from the Scottish Government on access to court transcripts. I refer members to paper 3.

Do members have any comments on the correspondence?

Yes.

I call Jackie Dunbar.

We have spent quite a bit of time looking at issues around secure accommodation. I will pick up on the issue of children coming into police custody. I know how difficult it is for custody sergeants and officers, regardless of the time of day, to care for young people and to meet their needs if the custody centre is busy and there are quite a lot of issues and challenges already in play. Is it the case that, regardless of the crime or offence for which they have been admitted, children should not be detained in police stations under any circumstances? Could that be included in the bill? That might have quite significant practical implications for how you make provision for an alternative place of safety. I would be interested in your views on that.

We have a final question from Russell Findlay.