Chamber and committees

I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests: I, too, am a councillor on Aberdeen City Council.

I am pleased to see that Aberdeen harbour is one of the proposed national developments included in the draft NPF4. Will the minister outline the role that the Government envisages the harbour playing in the transition to net zero and in stimulating economic investment in the north-east?

I acknowledge that call-out numbers were down this year, but much work still needs to be done. What progress has the Scottish Government made in implementing the recommendations of the independent fireworks review group, to ensure that fireworks are used safely and appropriately?

If you do not mind, I will pull the session back to staffing issues. We will come back to the important issue of drugs, but that will keep the session on track.

Good morning and welcome to the ninth meeting in 2021 of the Criminal Justice Committee. No apologies have been received.

Under item 1, do members agree to take in private item 3, which is consideration of today’s evidence?

Members indicated agreement.

Item 2 is consideration of the spending priorities in the justice sector for 2022-23. We will focus today on the Crown Office and then the Scottish Prison Service. I refer members to papers 1 to 3.

I welcome our first panel of witnesses, who I am delighted to see in person: Dorothy Bain QC, the Lord Advocate; and, from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, David Harvie, the Crown Agent. We appreciate your taking the time to join us and thank you for your written submissions, which are available online.

I intend to allow about an hour and 15 minutes for questions and discussion. I ask members to indicate which witness they are directing their remarks to. I invite the Lord Advocate to make a short opening statement and, after that, I will ask the Crown Agent whether he wishes to add anything.

Thank you very much. Do you have anything to add, Mr Harvie?

I am conscious that this is a really important discussion, but we would like to work through quite a lot of themes, so I would be grateful if people kept their questions and answers as succinct as possible.

We have less than half an hour left, so we will move on to questions about violence against women and girls.

Katy Clark would like to come in, and then we will move on to look at issues around organised crime. We will stay with Katy for that, as I know that she is interested in asking some questions on that area.

I would like to move on to consider the prison estate. I will bring in Jamie Greene first, and I will then ask a couple of questions.