Chamber and committees

Our final panel consists of one witness, as, unfortunately, Chief Superintendent Gordon McCreadie has submitted his apologies. We have with us Chief Inspector Nick Clasper, policy and partnerships, Police Scotland criminal justice services division. You are on your own this afternoon, chief inspector, but a warm welcome to you. We have about 45 minutes for the session. We may have to cut it short a little owing to the previous panels’ overrunning, but we will see how we go.

I will start by asking you a very general question about the information that the police include in police reports that inform the fiscal and the court around decision making on bail. Clearly, Police Scotland officers have a role to play in informing that process. It therefore may be helpful if you were able to set out the type of information that is included in police reports around bail in particular and tell us whether you, as an officer, recommend that bail be sought or otherwise. Over to you.

Following on from that, one of the issues that we have been looking at closely is the voice of victims, complainers and witnesses. To what extent do you include information from, for example, victims in the police report?

This is really helpful and interesting, and it certainly fits with what we observed on Monday on the use of supervised bail. I am also interested in the information that is provided to the court by criminal justice social work and, potentially, others—we may come on to that later—to inform bail decision making and a decision on the potential for supervised bail.

I will let you back in, Jamie.

That is interesting.

I will continue with the release theme. Earlier, we heard evidence about the value of the third sector and other organisations starting throughcare support before an individual is released. Is there a pre-release role for Police Scotland that is not already in place that fits within the provisions of the bill?

Jamie wants to come back in, and then we will probably bring the session to a close.

Thank you very much, chief inspector. There are no more questions. This has been a nice, neat panel with which to end our morning. We appreciate your time.

That concludes the public part of our agenda. We will now move into private session.

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.

I very much congratulate the Cromarty and Forth green freeport bids on their success, but I am very disappointed that the north-east bid, where my constituency is located, was not successful.

In addition to the update that he provided in his statement, will the Deputy First Minister give a reassurance that the Scottish Government will ensure that the north-east receives the long-term support that is required to help achieve the Government’s net zero and just transition targets, and that it will further help to maximise the opportunities that have been granted to the north-east to secure it as a future global energy hub?