Chamber and committees

Thank you very much.

I have a question for Stuart Allardyce. I am interested to know how you can prevent someone from being an online child abuser. When someone is referred to you, or when you hear from someone—however it is that contact is established—what form does your intervention take? Do you give them counselling? I am interested to know what your organisation does. You mentioned that some people had been arrested. At what point does that kick in?

Were those calls and emails from people referring themselves?

Are you talking about a one-off phone call, or is there on-going dialogue with people who call up?

Stuart Allardyce, how do you measure your service’s success rate?

Following ACC Hawkins’s comments about the changing nature of policing over the years, I have a question for David Hamilton. Has the training for police officers kept up with the massive changes that have happened over the years? Do they get adequate training on what they should expect, how to recognise people who have mental health difficulties and—the other side of the coin—how those situations might affect them and their own mental health?

I agree with everything that the deputy convener and Pauline McNeill have said. Could we also raise the issue of interaction between the Scottish Prison Service and the Wise Group and other throughcare services? When we asked whether there is much co-operation, there was quite a negative answer. Sometimes, offenders had to search for information from the Prison Service. It might be good to highlight that issue to try to get more co-ordination, because such groups provide a fantastic service.

Exactly. As far as police officers’ mental health is concerned, do you feel that there is enough support in the police service for officers who find it hard to deal with such really difficult situations?

Thanks for that.

I want to ask about the representation of women in the media. Just last week, a newspaper subjected a woman politician to blatant misogyny. Does that make you think that we have a long, long way to go? Do you foresee a time when the media will not use misogyny to discredit women, including for political reasons?

Your point that the backlash would probably not have happened five or 10 years ago is encouraging. If that article had been published in a Scottish newspaper—if there are still such things—could the publisher have been prosecuted under the new law?