Chamber and committees

Thank you. That is very helpful. You are right—I am sure that we will come on to some of those issues, and others, throughout the meeting.

We will move on to questions about the not proven verdict and judge-only trials.

Thank you, Lord Advocate, for that helpful and welcome update.

We will move on to questions, and I will open up with a fairly general one. You will be aware that a key focus of our work so far in this session has been understanding the experiences of complainers and witnesses as they journey through the criminal justice system following an allegation of rape or sexual assault.

As part of our work, we have heard at first hand from a number of brave women about their experiences in that regard. This morning, we would like to pick up on some of their testimony. I will start by referring to Lady Dorrian’s review—which you just mentioned, Lord Advocate—on the management of sexual offences. I would like to ask a little bit about what actions the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has taken to date in response to Lady Dorrian’s recommendations, bearing in mind that her report was published almost a year ago. Can you give us a broad update in respect of your response?

Thank you, Lord Advocate. Mr Harvie, do you want to come in?

I am going to move on to questioning around the use of pre-recorded evidence and culture issues.

We still have a few areas of questioning that we would like to cover, so I ask the Lord Advocate to keep her answers fairly brief. Mr Harvie, would you like to come in?

I will hand on to Pauline McNeill, and then I will bring in Jamie Greene.

Thank you, Lord Advocate.

If Fulton MacGregor has finished his line of questioning, I invite Mr Harvie to come in, and then I will bring in Pauline McNeill and Russell Findlay, who are both interested in asking supplementary questions on this topic.

Yes, of course.

Apologies. I thought that you had. In that case, I will bring in Jamie Greene, followed by Rona Mackay.

I think that we lost Rona Mackay momentarily, but I think that she might be back now. Rona, can you hear us? [Interruption.] We are obviously still having some problems.

Thank you for those comments, Lord Advocate. I will move on to our next area of questioning and hope that we can get Rona Mackay back in to ask any follow-up questions that she might have. I should also remind everyone to keep their questions and responses succinct where possible. Our next questions are on the role of the advocate depute.