Chamber and committees

Okay. We will go back to Fulton MacGregor.

I will just go back to Fulton to check whether he is happy with that.

Thank you very much. We will move to questions. There are seven witnesses, so I ask members to indicate who should answer their question. If other witnesses want to come in, they should indicate that, and I will try to bring them in. The aim is to have a discussion, and we will try to intersperse the views of witnesses with questions from the committee. If we have moved on but a witness still has something to say, they should take the opportunity to get their points on the record. The panel is quite big, so my chairing will not be seamless. It would be too difficult and we would be here all day if we were to go round every witness for every comment.

This is a starting point for the committee on the subject. We will look at everything that we hear today and then decide what more we want to do.

I ask Maggie Chapman to kick off with the first questions.

I will go to Rosanne Cubitt and then Karen Adam. If folk still have something to say, they can come in after that.

There are a few areas that we have not managed to cover, but we have covered many issues in depth. There are quite a few things for the committee to consider and take forward. I thank you all so much for your evidence.

Ruth, would you like to come in?

Good morning, and welcome to the fifth meeting in session 6 of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. We have received apologies from Pam Duncan-Glancy. Fulton MacGregor and Karen Adam are joining us virtually.

Agenda item 1 is a decision on whether to take item 5, on correspondence from the COVID-19 Recovery Committee, in private. Do members agree to take that item in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you for that and for keeping your response brief. We are tight for time, and members want to cover other areas, so I ask that we all try to be brief. However, I understand that we are covering big topics.

Thank you, cabinet secretary. Pam Duncan-Glancy has a couple of questions.

The next item of business is to take evidence from the cabinet secretary as part of our stage 1 scrutiny of the Miners’ Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Bill. I welcome to the meeting the Scottish Government officials who are accompanying the cabinet secretary: Elaine Hamilton, who is head of forensics policy in the police powers unit, police division, and Louise Miller, who is a solicitor in the legal directorate. I refer members to papers 2 and 3, and I invite the cabinet secretary to make a short opening statement.