Chamber and committees

In that case, I call Katy Clark.

That brings this agenda item to a close, and I thank the witnesses for attending. We will have a short break to allow for a changeover of officials.

The next item of business is consideration of the service and case management system that is used by social work and prison staff to assess risk management in the justice system. I thank the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans for remaining for this agenda item, and I welcome to the meeting Cat Dalrymple, who is deputy director for community justice at the Scottish Government. I refer members to paper 5.

In light of the time that is available, we will move straight to questions.

We will stick with electronic court options. Russell, do you want to ask questions on that?

Thank you. We will move on. I am sorry—did you want to come in, David?

I anticipated some questioning on conducting court business by electronic means, so I will bring in Rona Mackay.

I am watching the time, so we will now move to questions on time limits and then come back to the issue of early release. I call Jamie Greene.

Thank you.

On the civil side, my understanding is that almost all civil and tribunal business has been undertaken either online or by phone during the pandemic. Can you update members on whether that is likely to continue and, if so, for how long?

The next agenda item is consideration of evidence on a negative instrument. I welcome to the meeting Keith Brown, Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans, and Jamie MacQueen, from the Scottish Government legal directorate. Allister Purdie, director of operations, Scottish Prison Service, is attending online. I refer members to papers 3 and 4 and I invite the cabinet secretary to make some brief opening remarks.

I have a follow-up question on the process of assessment and decision making that governors and others follow. We know that the decisions on imposing these particular provisions are public-health based. I am interested in the process and how it is informed. Can you give us some of the detail of the risk assessment process?