Chamber and committees

Thank you. I am sure that other members will have some follow-up questions on the court model.

I now open it up to questions from members. I call John Swinney, to be followed by Sharon Dowey.

Thank you for that helpful and comprehensive answer.

One of the things that I have certainly grappled with a little bit is the practical application of a specialist court in a national context. You have helpfully set out a lot of the model’s benefits, if you like, but did the review consider the challenges with regard to its practical application?

Thank you Lady Dorrian. We appreciate your taking the time to join us this morning. We will now have a short suspension.

I welcome the significant investment of £66.9 million in the offshore wind supply chain that the Scottish Government announced as part of this week’s budget. In the light of the recent Fraser of Allander Institute report on jobs in renewable energy, will the First Minister outline his Government’s commitment to growing the green sector in Scotland as part of our journey to net zero?

That is an important issue that people are interested in, but I am keen to bring in other members. We can come back to it at the end if we have time. I will bring in John Swinney.

I am aware of the time, chief constable, but I have one more question to ask, and a couple of members would like to come in with very brief follow-up questions, so if you have scope to stay with us for a few more minutes, that would be greatly appreciated.

I will pick up on a point that John Swinney raised earlier, and I will also reflect on your opening statement, in which you spoke about the significant resource implications arising from responding to people in distress and said that officers and staff had responded to about 100,000 mental health incidents in the past year and that that was equivalent to the work of around 500 full-time officers—I hope that I am quoting you correctly. Clearly, there is a budget implication in that, and it is good to hear about the work that is under way to address that.

One other factor that we are aware of in this space is the reluctance of officers to walk away, if you like, from a person. Doing that does not fit with the reason why they joined Police Scotland, which was to make life a bit better for people, and there is also a fear of the repercussions should something go wrong. I am interested in how you intend to reduce the demand that we have already spoken about, but at the same time enable and empower officers and staff to perhaps take a different approach than they have taken to date, without being worried about getting it wrong.

One of the things that we have not really spoken about this morning is training, which I see as being crucial to giving officers not only the confidence but also the skills to do that. I am interested in how you intend doing that, which perhaps also touches on what Fulton MacGregor spoke to around a culture shift.

We draw our session to a close. I thank the witnesses for their forbearance, for staying on with us and for the evidence that they provided to the committee.

I am sure that members noted my obvious omission earlier on. Are members happy for us to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you very much, chief constable. We welcome your comments on the police budget that was announced yesterday and related matters.

I want to pick up on some points, staying with the budget theme. We are all currently in the budget space. The Scottish Police Authority, in its budget proposal for 2024-25, said:

“As the significant financial benefits from reform and transformation have already been realised through the creation of the single service, it is not possible for policing to deliver substantial savings for a second time through efficiency alone.”

It stated that,

“Further significant savings can only be achieved through a redesign of the policing model”

—which you mentioned—

“underpinned by a reshaping of the workforce, alongside targeted action to reduce the overall non-pay cost base.”

It went on to say:

“It is recognised and accepted that more can be done to re-shape and re-size policing to ensure the most effective and efficient use of its resources aligned to the policing priorities.”

From the committee’s scrutiny of the policing budget requirement for next year, we very much recognise those remarks and that position. Can you set out in a bit more detail what you consider that a redesigned policing model for Scotland would look like?