Chamber and committees

Thank you very much, Norman. At this end, your picture is coming and going a little, but we will hang on in there and we will, I hope, be able to keep you on screen.

Members have quite a number of questions, so I ask for succinct questions and answers. I hand over to Pauline McNeill and will then bring in Rona Mackay.

I will bring the session to a close; we have been going for more than two hours. We have heard a lot of helpful commentary from the witnesses. Thank you very much for attending. If there are other issues that you want to follow up on or information that you want to share with the committee, please feel free to do so, and we will take that evidence into account.

That concludes the public part of the meeting. We now move into private session to review the evidence that we have heard this morning.

We will go to Pauline McNeill, then to Katy Clark, before bringing the session to an end.

I will pick up on a couple of points that were raised in Jamie Greene’s earlier questioning about the situation around there being a complete ban. We have asked other witnesses about that and they have shared their thoughts on it. I clarify that it would not be within the gift of the Scottish Parliament or the Scottish Government to put a ban in place; that would be a decision for the UK Parliament. Linked to that, the option of a QR code would also not be within our gift but would have to be taken forward by the UK Parliament.

On the questions that Jamie Greene was asking, particularly around the impact of the restrictions on business, I will bring in Norman Donald, who I think we have back online again.

Before I do that, though, I would like to pick up on another point that Jamie made, around the legislative provision and Police Scotland. Earlier on, it was said that there might be scope for the existing legislation to be used more effectively by police officers. You will be aware that the bill proposes a new offence around travel to and from certain events—“a public assembly”, and that type of thing. Given your comments about making better use of existing legislation, do you feel that the proposed new offence would be another welcome tool in the toolbox for Police Scotland in controlling illegal use of fireworks, albeit in the specific context of sporting events, in the main?

Collette Stevenson wants to come in on that.

Mr Donald, are you able to respond, if you want to?

What steps are being taken, through the new “Vision for Justice in Scotland”, to protect victims from serious crime?

[Inaudible.] I will move straight on. We would like to touch on the main themes in the bill.

We have a few supplementary questions on that subject. Pauline McNeill has a follow-up question, and I know that Russell Findlay and Jamie Greene would like to come in, followed by David MacKenzie.

I will come to you all, starting with Pauline.

That is maybe brought out in your written submission, but reiterating that point is helpful.