Chamber and committees

I call Jamie Greene, to be followed by Rona Mackay, who will ask about the early release of prisoners.

Good morning, and welcome to the seventh meeting in 2022 of the Criminal Justice Committee. No apologies have been received.

The first agenda item is a decision on whether to take in private item 4, which is discussion of the evidence that we are about to hear on the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill. I also seek agreement that consideration of the evidence that is heard and of draft reports on the bill should be taken in private at future meetings. Do we agree to take those items of business in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Before I bring in Russell Findlay, Pauline McNeill has a follow-up question.

If we have got through all the questions that members would like to ask on the bill, I would like to thank—

That concludes the evidence session. I thank witnesses for attending. If you want to share any outstanding points with the committee in writing, please feel free to do so and we will take them into account. We will pause briefly to allow you to leave the committee room.

Our next item of business is consideration of correspondence on photocopying of prisoners’ mail. I refer members to paper 4. Members will recall that in January we considered a statutory instrument to change prison rules to allow for photocopying of prisoners’ mail in order to mitigate the risk of illicit substances being introduced via the mail system. We subsequently wrote to Police Scotland, the Scottish Government and the Scottish Prison Service requesting additional information. Responses have been received and have been circulated with this week’s committee papers.

The committee is invited to consider what, if any, follow-up action is required. Members will recall that the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans, Keith Brown, indicated that he would update the committee on on-going review of the regulations after three months.

I am happy to hear members’ views on the matter.

Finally, I hand over to Pauline McNeill. I am afraid that we will then have to bring the session to a close.

We have overrun a little. There are a couple of areas of questioning that we would like to have covered, but time has been against us, so we will follow up with you both in correspondence to ask some more questions. Likewise, if you feel that there are any outstanding matters on which you would like to share your views with the committee, please feel free to do so in writing, and we will take that evidence into account. I thank you both for your attendance today.

I suspend the meeting briefly to allow our next panel of witnesses to come in.

Thank you very much. That is helpful, and it is certainly food for thought for members.

I will ask Kate Wallace and Marsha Scott a quick follow-up question before I bring in Katy Clark to ask questions about time limits in criminal cases. On going forward from the perspective of victims, Marsha Scott touched on how well virtual arrangements are working already. It is clear that they have some challenges. What needs to change in early course?

Welcome back, everybody. I welcome to the meeting Ms Emma Jardine, policy and public affairs adviser at the Howard League Scotland; and Teresa Medhurst, interim chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service, and Allister Purdie, interim director of operations.

I intend to allow around an hour and 20 minutes for questions and answers. We will move directly to questions, and I will ask the opening question, which is for Teresa and Emma. It relates to developments around court business being undertaken by electronic means. I am interested to know your views on the specific provisions in the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill to allow flexibility for people to attend court proceedings remotely.