Chamber and committees

I move swiftly on. Fulton MacGregor has questions about trauma-informed training, albeit that we have been covering that off.

Over the past few days, I have been contacted by constituents who have been experiencing difficulty in obtaining lateral flow testing kits from their local pharmacies. Can the First Minister provide an assurance that everything possible will be done to ensure that adequate supplies of kits are available at pharmacies, especially for those who are unable to use alternative options, such as ordering online?

I welcome the minister’s announcement this afternoon. She will know that the Criminal Justice Committee has been taking evidence on the challenges that are faced by people who were previously accessing drug services and are now in prison.

In our recent pre-budget scrutiny work, committee members recommended, among other things, investment in recovery cafes in prisons. To what extent will the actions that the minister has outlined today support the Scottish Prison Service’s on-going work to respond more effectively to prisoners who have a drug dependency? Will there be an injection of funds in recovery cafes, as the committee asked for?

As the minister said, Brexit has undoubtedly thrown up barriers, including barriers to artists’ ability to tour and perform. What steps is the Scottish Government taking to support Scotland’s artists and musicians to tour and perform in Europe?

Would you like to come back in, Fulton?

That is unfortunate, but it is helpful to know that.

Bringing things back to where we started, I note that many of the issues that were raised in Lady Dorrian’s review are not new. Do you have any final comments on what needs to be done to resolve the issues as quickly as possible?

I will hand over to Collette Stevenson, who has a general question. We will then move on to issues around safety, the physical environment and care of witnesses.

Good morning and welcome to the 13th meeting of the Criminal Justice Committee in 2021. We have apologies from Russell Findlay. Fulton MacGregor joins us online.

Our first item of business is to agree whether to take agenda item 3, which is consideration of this morning’s evidence, in private. Are we agreed to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

We are certainly aware of trauma-informed approaches. That issue has been raised and members may come back to it later.

Another key issue is communication and engagement with witnesses, by which I mean survivors and complainers. There has been some commentary about and criticism of that issue. There has been a suggestion that there should be a single point of contact—someone who could advocate for an individual and chaperone them through the process. Has there been any consideration of that?

I have a question about the timescales for working through the proposed changes, in particular in relation to your work with justice partners in establishing a specialist court. Forgive me—earlier, I conflated domestic abuse courts and specialist courts when I was referring to specialist courts.

How long do you anticipate that that process might take?