Chamber and committees

On David Fraser’s point on continuing to comply with 1m physical distancing, do you have an idea of when you can remove that requirement? That seems to be a stepping stone towards being able to function at more or less normal capacity.

We are just about there. Russell Findlay has a final question on this topic, after which we will cover fiscal fines.

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?