Chamber and committees

I would like to go back to the issue of remand prisoners. The Auditor General’s report indicates that, in 2021-22, one in four people in prison was on remand. To a layman, that seems to be a high figure. Is it a high figure? Is it as a result of the Covid epidemic? Does it represent a longer-term upward trend?

You say “high”. Can you quantify that? We are at 25 per cent. Are other countries at 10 per cent or 15 per cent? What is the norm elsewhere?

I was interested to see it noted in the Auditor General’s report that remand prisoners do not have the same rights as prisoners who have been convicted and that they can spend up to 22 hours a day in their cell. That must have a huge impact on their mental health—probably their physical health as well. Has a review been carried out to examine the extent to which remand impacts on various aspects of the prisoner’s life? Mental health is a big issue, but there is also employment and housing—all the things that go with it.

You say that you carried out a review. Is that available?

The report states that, in July 2020, the concept of remote jury centres was successfully piloted in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and it was implemented. The Scottish Government gave the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service an additional £12 million to implement the remote jury centre model. Was a value-for-money assessment carried out before that additional funding was required?

Let us move on to Katie then.

Would it add to the burden on creditors? They will receive all these pieces of paper—whether it is done on actual paper or electronically—back from the banks and so on, which will add considerably to their admin.

No pressure here. [Laughter.]

Good morning. I would like to explore a couple of areas. The first is about the arrestee duty of disclosure. The bill would require a person or body that receives an arrestment request to inform the creditor where it is unsuccessful. That will add to the existing information disclosure process for a successful request. A number of respondents raised concerns about the increased burdens and costs on arrestees. I was particularly struck with NatWest, which said that it receives about 70,000 arrestment requests every year, the vast majority of which fail. That is just one business, but if we look across the whole field at all the banks and other institutions that would be involved, the amount of paper that would be flying back and forward would create a burden, not just for the arrestees but possibly also for creditors, who would be receiving all the responses.

I have two questions. First, do you agree with the concerns about the extra burden that will come into the system? Secondly, it has been suggested that requiring arrestees to respond only to proactive requests for information from creditors would be a more proportionate way forward.

I ask Barry Mochan whether he has a comment on that.

In that case, we will pass it across to David Menzies.