Chamber and committees

A very good morning to everyone, and welcome to the second meeting of the Criminal Justice Committee in 2023. There are no apologies this morning.

The first item of business is an oral evidence session on the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill. We have three panels joining us this morning. The witnesses on our first panel are Stuart Munro, convener of the criminal law committee of the Law Society of Scotland, who we hope is joining us online; Fred Mackintosh KC from the Faculty of Advocates; and Joanne McMillan, committee member of the Glasgow Bar Association. A very warm welcome to you all.

I refer members to papers 1 to 3. I intend to allow up to 75 minutes for this session. As time is tight, I ask, as ever, for succinct questions and responses.

On that note, I will move straight to questions and ask our panel a very general opening question. Section 1 of the bill relates to input from justice social work to inform bail decisions. I am interested in your views on whether courts are currently provided with sufficient information when they are taking decisions on bail and remand. That is a very general question to open up with. I will come to Fred Mackintosh first, then bring in Joanne McMillan, and then we will come to Stuart Munro.

I will bring in Katy Clark and then Collette Stevenson. I ask people to watch the time.

A very good morning, and welcome to the first meeting in 2023 of the Criminal Justice Committee. I wish everyone a very happy new year. Apologies from Pauline McNeill have been noted.

Our first item of business is an oral evidence session on the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill. Consideration of the bill will be our main item of business over the next few weeks.

Two panels are joining us today. Our first witnesses are Kate Wallace from Victim Support Scotland and Emma Bryson from Speak Out Survivors. I welcome both of you.

I refer members to papers 1 and 2. I intend to allow about 60 minutes for this session. As ever, I would appreciate fairly succinct questions and responses. As time is quite tight, we will move straight to questions.

I will open with a general question for Kate Wallace. We thank you for the submission that Victim Support Scotland has provided to us. In that submission, Victim Support Scotland set out its general concerns about the proposed provisions relating to the use of bail and remand. Will you update members on the details of your concerns, particularly about the new test? I will also bring in Emma Bryson on that.

I will just ask a quick follow-up to that and then bring in Emma Bryson. Going back to the sessions that we had, I was not surprised that one of the people to whom we spoke told us that she received a lot of information from the police. In your view, who should have responsibility for communicating with a victim, particularly around, for example, the outcome of a bail appeal or a bail review and some of the other decision making that takes place? Who do you feel is best positioned to have responsibility for that role, or does it stretch across different organisations such as Victim Support and the court system?

Of course.

Lesley McAra, if it is remotely feasible to give me a succinct answer to the question, I will bring you in.

Thank you very much indeed. On that note, I thank all our witnesses. We could probably speak for another couple of hours on this.

We will have a short suspension to allow our witnesses to leave.

Are you happy with that, Russell?

I agree. For clarification, I intend that, when we can put the item back on the agenda, we will absolutely do that. I agree—I do not want it to be a bit of email correspondence from now on.

What does it relate to?