Chamber and committees

Our next agenda item is a round-table discussion on victims’ rights and victim support. I refer members to papers 4 and 5. We will take evidence from a number of witnesses, who are joining us virtually. I am sorry that they cannot join us in person, but that is due to current rules on social distancing.

I welcome Mary Glasgow, chief executive of Children 1st; John Watt, chair of the Parole Board for Scotland; Superintendent Colin Convery of the partnerships, prevention and community wellbeing division of Police Scotland; Tim Barraclough, executive director for tribunals and the Office of the Public Guardian at the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service; Teresa Medhurst, interim chief executive, and Allister Purdie, interim director of operations, both from the Scottish Prison Service; Kate Wallace, chief executive officer of Victim Support Scotland; and Sean Duffy, chief executive officer of the Wise Group.

We appreciate the time that you are taking to join us this morning. I thank those of you who provided written submissions, which are now available online.

I intend to allow about an hour and 20 minutes for questions and discussion. Witnesses who wish to respond to a question should indicate that by typing the letter R in the chat box on BlueJeans and I will bring them in if time permits. There is no need to intervene just to agree with something that another witness has said. Other comments that are made in the chat function will not be visible to committee members and will not be recorded anywhere, so witnesses who want to comment should do so by asking to speak. I ask members and our invited guests to keep their questions and comments as succinct as possible. I am keen to encourage a free-flowing discussion.

I have a broad opening question, which might be for Ms Wallace and Mr Duffy. What do victims want from the criminal justice system? What are your main concerns about how they are supported in the system? What do they experience as they come into it, and how are they involved in it? How does the system support and work for victims as—we hope—they navigate away from it?

Thank you for those interesting points.

Tim Barraclough would like to come in on that issue.

If there are no more questions about the current legislation, we will move on to issues around victim notification.

At this point, I will bring in Teresa Medhurst, who wanted to respond, I think. Given that we are discussing the issue of victim notification, do you have any views on the current support or arrangements in place in that respect, particularly with regard to notification of release dates?

Thank you. Jamie Greene has a follow-up question, and then I will bring in Mr Barraclough before I hand over to Ms Mackay.

Our colleagues from Children 1st have invited members to visit the barnahus, and I am sure that we will be keen to take up that invitation.

Ms Mackay has been waiting patiently to ask a question.

As Ms Stevenson and Mr Greene have raised some questions to which it would be valuable to get some answers, I propose to hold off asking the committee to agree the instrument until next week. Are members content with that?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you. After Collette Stevenson, I will bring in Wendy Sinclair-Gieben for any final comments that she may have.

I will bring in Ms Graham at this point and then Professor McAra. I am trying to keep things moving smoothly.