Chamber and committees

Every home nation in the UK is struggling with the issue right now, and I have engaged with colleagues across the UK on it; I have had discussions with people in Northern Ireland, in particular. England and Wales have had emergency release provisions for decades, and have had a rolling prisoner release programme since October 2023. Measures have been taken there to utilise police cells, which is not something that we have pursued, and the measures have slowed down the court process. We remain focused on court catch-up.

It is important to consider what is currently available in other jurisdictions for emergency situations, but we can cast our eye further afield to other comparable jurisdictions that have historically always had much lower prison populations than Scotland has. There is not something intrinsic to Scotland—or indeed anywhere else in the UK—

Teresa Medhurst, would you like to attempt to answer that?

I talk to every partner in the justice system about the problems that are associated with the high prison population. That includes the Lord President. He is a defender and protector of the independence of the judiciary—as I am and as we all are, by law. I talk to each and every partner in our justice system about the problems that are associated with a high prison population, because it will ultimately require a whole-system solution. It is beholden on me to raise awareness, increase the visibility of community disposals, discuss with people how they think the implementation of, or response to, the presumption against short-term sentences is going, and articulate the effectiveness of robust community disposals. That does not take away from the independent decision making of partners. In short, I discuss the matter with everybody, Mr Findlay.

The proportion was 25 per cent.

Well, we have—

There are a number of factors in that. I will specifically address the issue of long-term prisoners. Although the statutory instrument runs for a short period of time—that window is short—the effect on the prison population will be longer and should get us past the summer and into autumn.

That is why, as I outlined in my statement on 16 May, we will do a short exercise over the summer to consult on release arrangements for long-term prisoners. We will openly discuss the question of what proportion of a long-term sentence should be served under community supervision. For people who are not released on parole, that is currently six months. If sentences are going up and someone has served six, eight, 10, 12, or 14 years, is six months of compulsory supervision at the end of their sentence long enough to reintegrate them?

We need to have that conversation and look at the evidence. I am not prejudging the specifics, although I am strongly of the view that now, almost 10 years since the Prisoners (Control of Release) (Scotland) Act 2015 was passed, is the time to look at that, because it is one of the underlying factors behind our high prison population.

I also said in my statement that, depending on the response to that consultation, and with the approval of colleagues, I would seek to bring forward expedited legislation. We must do more. Emergency release is absolutely necessary right now, but we cannot take our foot off the gas. We must bring forward additional proposals, over and above what I have already reported to Parliament, and that is one of them.

I understand and take absolutely seriously the legitimate and real concerns that victim support organisations raise. I will not repeat the safety measures or safeguards in the arrangements. Collectively, we will continue to engage with victim support organisations.

However, with regard to being trauma-informed, that is why we implemented the sections in the 2023 act, whereby victims can, if they choose, have the information shared with a victim support organisation, either instead of, or at the same time as, the information being given to the victims.

I am sure that Mr Findlay is aware of the existing victim notification and information schemes.

It is one of many factors. Changes have been made to the release of long-term prisoners, there have been changes to home detention curfew, with the number of prisoners on an HDC dropping, and there has been an average increase in sentences of 14 per cent. HDC is one of the factors.

No. If I have not already followed that up in writing to this committee, I am happy to do that, but I went through the timeline, and what I said should be in the Official Report of the Finance and Public Administration Committee meeting that I attended.

The bill was introduced in June 2023. In autumn, my officials were told informally that policing partners were doing some work to revise the costs, because now that they had seen the text of the bill, they would need to be revised.

The evidence of the policing partners was published on 8 November last year, and my officials were aware of it on 6 November. As I said to the finance committee, I do not just accept what people tell me something is going to cost; I expect my officials to robustly examine it.

In March of this year, we got to the point at which the Government accepted the revised costs. The financial memorandum was the best estimate based on the information that I and my officials had at the time.