Chamber and committees

I am watching the time, but we have two or three final questions that we would like to ask. Fulton MacGregor will ask about community sentences.

I thank the cabinet secretary, Mr Rennick and Mr McGillivray for their attendance. We appreciate your time.

We will take a five-minute break before we move on to the next agenda item.

The next agenda item is consideration of a letter from the Minister for Community Safety on the Scottish Government’s plans for the control of dogs and a review of existing legislation. I refer members to paper 3 from the clerks.

Before I ask members for comments, I would like to put on record our condolences to the family of Jack Lis, in Wales, who sadly lost his life earlier in the week.

The control of dogs is clearly a very serious matter, and I am pleased that the minister has responded to our questions on what is being done to update the legislation in that area as a result of the then Public Audit and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee’s post-legislative review of the 2010 act.

The minister’s letter indicates that the Scottish Government is committed to reviewing the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, with a view to introducing legislation in this parliamentary session. That is to be welcomed, but we need to keep an eye on the timetable for that.

The minister’s letter also states that she will introduce a statutory instrument to establish a control of dogs database. I believe that that Scottish statutory instrument will be considered by the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee, because it relates to local government powers.

Do members have comments on the content of the letter?

That concludes the public part of the meeting. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 17 November, when we will seek to agree our budget report and a number of reports from our round-table sessions.

We will move into private session for the final agenda item.

I will hand over to Collette Stevenson and then Russell Findlay. I would like to bring this session to a close at 11:30. We have a few additional issues to pick up, so we will see how much we get through, given the time. I ask for succinct questions and answers.

Thank you. I will bring in Russell Findlay and then Collette Stevenson.

I will bring in Collette Stevenson, and then I will come back to Jamie Greene, to ask questions about the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

With regard to plans to modernise the prison estate, we would be keen for approaches to prevent the historical overcrowding in prisons in Scotland to be built into the process. Can the prevention of overcrowding be addressed in the redesign of the prison estate, with issues that we have been discussing such as the changing demographic being taken into account?

Thank you. As you have just mentioned the issue of women prisoners, I will bring in Rona Mackay.

The next agenda item is consideration of the spending priorities in the justice sector for 2022-23. I refer members to papers 1 and 2. I am pleased to welcome our witnesses, whom I am delighted to see in person. From the Scottish Government, we are joined by Keith Brown, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans; Neil Rennick, the director of justice; and Donald McGillivray, the director of safer communities. We very much appreciate the time that you have taken to join us.

I invite the cabinet secretary to make a short opening statement.