Chamber and committees

Rona Mackay has a supplementary question.

Finally, I bring in Pauline McNeill.

Our next agenda item is oral evidence on a motion to annul a negative Scottish statutory instrument. I refer members to paper 2.

I welcome back to the meeting the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans, Keith Brown, and his officials, Ms Sandra Wallace, parole policy manager, and Mr Nicholas Duffy, senior principal legal officer, who joins us online.

I invite Jamie Greene to speak to and move his motion.

If you move it now, I will ask you later whether you intend to press or withdraw it.

I invite the cabinet secretary to respond.

Thank you, cabinet secretary. I thank John Watt of the Parole Board for the briefing that he provided to committee members, as it was helpful in informing today’s debate.

I agree. That is a helpful suggestion.

Thank you for that. I concur with the comments that members have made.

To pull things together, I propose that we write to the cabinet secretary to ask for more detail on the scope of the new contract and to ask why that detail could not have been provided earlier, as Jamie Greene pointed out.

There is scope for us to build more of a case around the provision of transcripts for those who seek copies. It might also be helpful if we were to ask, for example, Scottish Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland—which will be interested and following the matter—for an update on how easy or challenging it currently is for individuals to obtain copies of transcripts. Is there still a significant cost or has anything changed in that regard? It would perhaps be helpful for us to get some insight into that.

Are members happy with that proposal?

That is noted. We can follow that up to get an up-to-date position on that.

If there is nothing else, we will bring this item to a close. If members want to make additional comments on the action plan, I am happy for you to link directly with the clerks—if it is more of a technical update. I appreciate that we have worked through that quite quickly.

We will return to our action plan later in the year to see what further progress is being made to deliver on the recommendations and actions that we have set out.

Thanks for that. I still propose that we note the discussion today and that we await the introduction of the forthcoming criminal justice reform bill. I note Jamie Greene’s comments and his preference, but if committee members are agreed, I propose that we note the discussion.