Chamber and committees

Thank you—that is helpful. Katy Clark has a question about independent legal representation.

Would Katy Clark like to come back in?

Will you make your comments very brief? We are straying slightly, and other members want to come in.

I will start to pull things together. I have a supplementary from John Swinney—it will have to be the briefest supplementary—and Katy Clark would still like to come back in. I ask the witnesses to bear with us.

I will bring in Katy Clark, very quickly, if she would like to come in.

Thanks very much for that. Professor Munro, I said that I would bring you in next. Would you like to come in?

Thank you, Professor Munro—there is a lot in there. I will move swiftly on and bring in Professor Chalmers.

Thank you for your interesting commentary on how essential good technology is. Before I bring in Katy Clark for a final question, does Professor Thomas want to add anything?

I welcome our second panel of witnesses: Tony Lenehan KC, president of the Faculty of Advocates criminal bar association; Sheila Webster, president of the Law Society of Scotland; Alan McCreadie, solicitor and head of research and secretary to the Law Society of Scotland’s criminal law committee; and Simon Di Rollo KC. Welcome to you all. We are very grateful to you for joining the meeting.

I intend to allow around 90 minutes for this panel. I propose that we initially focus our questions on the proposal for a new sexual offences court before moving on to the proposal for a pilot for judge-led trials in certain rape cases. Finally, we can discuss the proposals for independent legal representation for complainers and anonymity for victims of sex offences.

As usual, I will open with my general question for the panel. Recently, in her evidence to the committee, Lady Dorrian argued that a specialist sexual offences court, among other measures, is required if we are to achieve the kind of changes that we need. She warned that piecemeal reforms would not bring about the necessary shift in culture. I will start by asking Tony Lenehan to respond to that.

We seem to have lost Katy Clark momentarily. Would Simon Di Rollo like to come in on this point?