Chamber and committees

Good morning, and welcome to the 15th meeting in 2022 of the Criminal Justice Committee. We have not received any apologies this morning.

Our main item of business is an evidence session on the final report of the misogyny and criminal justice in Scotland working group. I refer members to papers 1 and 2. It is my real pleasure to welcome to our meeting Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, chair of the misogyny and criminal justice in Scotland working group; and Mr Bill Brash, misogyny working group team leader with the Scottish Government. I invite Baroness Kennedy to make some brief opening remarks.

Sadly, we have time only for one final question. I ask Russell Findlay to be brief, if he can.

I take your points. The best suggestion that I can make is that we follow up your queries in writing with the Scottish Government. Do members agree to do that?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you for raising that issue. We can include that in our correspondence to the Scottish Government.

That concludes the public part of our meeting.

Thank you very much, Baroness Kennedy. That is a helpful overview, and it leads us neatly on to questions. I would like to start off by asking you a question about the legislation that you propose in your report. You recommend the creation of a statutory aggravation of misogyny that operates separately from hate crime legislation. I am interested in your view on the aggravating factor working and in why misogyny should not be dealt with as a type of hate crime.

We have a number of questions to get through, so I ask for questions and answers that are as brief as possible.

Katy Clark, did you want to come in on this topic?

In that case I will bring in Fulton MacGregor, who has been waiting patiently.

The next item is consideration of a Scottish statutory instrument. I refer members to paper 3. Do members have any comments to make, or are we content with the instrument?

I accept the points that you make, which are obviously shared by other members, so I am happy for us to pick up the issue offline and consider it more closely. It is a very valid issue to raise.