Chamber and committees

Thank you.

I welcome Margaret Gribbon to the meeting; Margaret is attending online. Thank you very much for taking the time to attend our meeting this morning—we really appreciate it.

I refer members to papers 1 to 3. I intend to allow around 45 minutes for this evidence session. I thought that it might be helpful if I opened with a question about the police complaints system. What do you think should be changed about the police complaints system, based on your own experience?

Margaret, before you answer that, can I encourage you to focus some of your answers on the provisions of the bill? I know that it is often hard for people to do that without referring to individual cases, but we have limited time and other members are looking to come in. If it is possible for you to do that, that would be appreciated.

Margaret, just before you continue, I wonder whether I can encourage you to give us slightly more succinct responses. I still have some members who would like to come in. Thank you.

Thank you; we are grateful for that opening statement.

It would be helpful to clarify a couple of points. You spoke about COPFS. Just for clarification, by that, do you mean the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service?

Thank you very much, Russell; I know that you are clearly immersed in this particular issue. I will bring in Rona Mackay, and then we will have to conclude our session.

Thank you, Margaret. That is really helpful. I thank you for attending the meeting. We have picked up some valuable points from you, and we are grateful to you for giving up your time. There will be a short suspension to allow a changeover of witnesses.

In respect of misconduct and the police complaints system, we heard earlier about the importance of the process being independent. Do you have a similar view?

We should be able to find that out.

I will bring in Russell Findlay.

That would be very much an operational issue, but we can perhaps consider getting a wee bit more background information on the context of restricted duties, including when they are utilised, what they are utilised for and so on. We can come back to that.