Chamber and committees

Sandra, I will come back to you. I hand over to Rona Mackay to ask a follow-up question.

Thanks; that is really interesting. I am interested in your comments about the option of having a named person.

I will bring this session to a close, but I am just going to bring in Sandra Cheyne, who has been battling with her sound today. Do you have any final comments on the issue of release and access to medication?

Thank you very much. We are a bit distracted by your wee companion, but it is a nice way to end the panel session.

That is us up to time. I thank all the witnesses for their assistance. The session has been really informative, and if members have any further queries or questions, we will follow those up in writing. I will suspend the meeting briefly to allow our final panel of witnesses to get ready.

I ask our witnesses to keep their answers as succinct as they can, as there is an awful lot to cover.

I ask witnesses to keep their answers reasonably tight, so that we can get through as many questions as possible.

That brings us to the end of our first panel. I thank the witnesses very much indeed for their attendance. It has been a really informative session for members.

A very good morning, and welcome to the 32nd meeting in 2022 of the Criminal Justice Committee. We have no apologies. Members should note that Katy Clark and Fulton MacGregor will join us shortly.

I refer members to papers 1 and 2. Today, the committee will scrutinise the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill at stage 1 of the Parliament’s legislative process. We will hear from three panels of witnesses.

First, I am pleased to welcome Tracey McFall, who is a member of the executive committee of the criminal justice voluntary sector forum; Lynne Thornhill, who is director of justice services at Sacro; and Charlie Martin, who is stakeholder and policy lead with the Wise Group. We appreciate the time that you have taken to join us this morning.

I intend to allow about an hour for questions and answers. All our witnesses are attending online, so it would be helpful if members indicated who their questions are for and if the witnesses indicated in the online chat function that they would like to respond to a specific question.

Given the slight tightness of time, I remind members and our guests to keep questions and answers as succinct as possible. I am happy to open up the session to members to ask questions.

Thank you. I will open up the meeting to questions from members.

That is helpful. I will bring in Jamie Greene again to bring the session to a close. We are just about out of time.

Thanks, Lynne. Would Tracey McFall like to comment?