Chamber and committees

I call Pauline McNeill to wind up and to press or withdraw her amendment.

Can you confirm whether you will press amendment 67?

Amendment 1, in the name of Pauline McNeill, is grouped with amendment 69.

We move to group 8. Amendment 70, in the name of Russell Findlay, is grouped with amendments 71, 15, 72 to 74 and 77.

The question is, that amendment 70 be agreed to. Are we agreed?

Members: No.

The result of the division is: For 4, Against 4, Abstentions 0. There is an equality of votes. Therefore, as convener, I shall use my casting vote to vote against the amendment.

Amendment 70 disagreed to.

Amendment 71 moved—[Russell Findlay].

The result of the division is: For 4, Against 4, Abstentions 0. There is an equality of votes. Therefore, as convener, I will use my casting vote against the amendment.

Amendment 76 disagreed to.

Amendment 17 moved—[Ash Regan]—and agreed to.

Amendment 77 not moved.

Section 9, as amended, agreed to.

Section 10—Grant of fireworks licence subject to conditions

Amendment 78 not moved.

Amendment 18 moved—[Ash Regan]—and agreed to.

Amendments 79 and 80 not moved.

We will pause stage 2 proceedings at that point and resume consideration of amendments to the rest of the bill at our next meeting, on Wednesday 1 June. We will also consider several affirmative instruments at our meeting next week. Those will include criminal justice regulations relating to offences, as well as regulations on legal aid.

I thank the minister and her team for attending.

I would like to go back to the discussion at the start, when the convener picked up on the issue of resources. The committee considered that issue previously during a session with Police Scotland and the NCA—Miles Bonfield, you were involved in that—and we also considered it in our pre-budget scrutiny.

I recognise that part of the overall response to child sexual exploitation online involves enforcement, and that we need to have a skilled body that can undertake that investigative role, given the international and underground dimensions of the issue, but I am still not clear what the committee and the Scottish Government need to be thinking about in terms of resources. On recruitment, what skills do we need to bring in so that we can fill the skills gap and ensure that we have an adequate investigative capability? How do we make Police Scotland an employer of choice—rather than, say, Google—for the people with the skills that we need in the workplace?

Miles Bonfield, could you respond to that first?

I endorse colleagues’ points about the value of the visit. I have to be honest and say that I did not know much about the Wise Group’s work before the visit, and I learned an awful lot, particularly about its throughcare provision.

I am interested in learning a little more about the wider reach of the Wise Group across Scotland. For instance, I am interested in what work it is doing or planning up here in the north-east. Obviously, we have HMP Grampian near my constituency. I would find it helpful to have a bit of background on that wider work.