Chamber and committees

Our next item of business is to conclude our evidence-taking as part of our pre-budget scrutiny. I am pleased to be joined by Angela Constance, who is the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs, and her officials Mr Don McGillivray, who is the director of safer communities, and Ms Gillian Russell, who is director of justice. Thank you for joining us.

I refer members to papers 1 and 2 and to the written submissions from a range of other organisations, which are set out in the annexe to paper 2. We are, as ever, grateful to everyone who sent in their views.

I intend to allow around 90 minutes for this session and I ask the cabinet secretary to make a short opening statement.

That was fascinating.

To come back to Scotland, as it were, I will pick up on a point that we discussed during your previous session with us. You suggested that there might be potential to expand your remit to include the prison estate because of the extensive biometric data that exists in that part of the justice sector. Will you give us an update on that work? Have you been able to move that forward?

That was a really interesting update. I commend the annual report, which has a lot of interesting detail that reflects the breadth and detail of the work that has been undertaken this past year.

You have spoken a lot about Police Scotland in the context of the assurance review work and the recommendations that have come out of it, and some of the compliance work that you have done, which is really interesting.

I am very interested, however, in a letter that you sent to Police Scotland in October 2023, with regard to the DESC pilot. The level of detail in the letter is to be commended. Essentially, you set out some concerns that you have with regard to—I will not even attempt to sound as though I have a technical brain—an aspect of Police Scotland’s cloud storage. I am sure that other members will want to come in on that point but I am interested in any update that you have with regard to the specific issue that has been flagged. The fact that you are able to pick up something such as that and take it forward really reflects the value of your commissioner role.

I thank you and your officials very much for your time, cabinet secretary.

We will have a short suspension to allow for the changeover of witnesses.

Thank you. I will move straight to members and bring in Liam Kerr.

That is really helpful.

I cannot remember whether it was in your letter or elsewhere, but I picked up on the fact that you are having to grapple with reserved and devolved legislation on biometrics. In the context of that particular concern, I am interested in hearing your thoughts. Can that be difficult, or are Governments working well together to allow you to do your job?

Thank you for that.

We will move on to questions on prisons. We still have a wee bit to get through, and we have about half an hour left, so I ask for succinct questions and responses.

We have just over 10 minutes left and still a wee bit to cover. I want to pick up on community justice. Last year, in the Government’s response to our pre-budget scrutiny, there was an indication that the Government would increase investment in community justice services as a way of contributing to shifting the balance away from custodial sentences. Obviously, we have a difficult situation with the prison population. With that in mind, I am interested in hearing the cabinet secretary’s aspirations for what she would like to see this coming year in community justice provision. How might you contribute to shifting the balance away from custodial sentences in the budget process?

Thank you. Ben Macpherson has a supplementary question.

Some members are interested in asking questions on the courts and prosecution service.