I welcome everyone to the seventh meeting in 2016 of the Justice Committee. I ask everyone to switch off mobile phones and other electronic devices as they interfere with broadcasting, even when they are switched to silent. We have received apologies from Alison McInnes and Margaret McDougall.
Before I move on to agenda item 1, I want to refer to something that I am sure the committee is not too happy about. Before Christmas, we asked Police Scotland for documentation on standard operating procedures—a Police Scotland document and documentation from the Interception of Communications Commissioner’s Office. Police Scotland’s lawyers previously said that the documents could be provided with redactions. Having requested an update on when the committee would finally get to see the documents, we received an email on 22 February that said:
“This redaction work is intensive and requires to be accommodated in terms of daily business, and within the resources which are available from time to time. It is reasonably estimated to take another couple of weeks.”
In other words, it looks like the documents will not be provided before the evidence session on 1 March with the chief constable and the head of the Scottish Police Authority. It may be even longer than that and, bearing in mind that we are running out of time, I am not very happy that Police Scotland is apparently deferring, to put it politely. I think that we should be pressing further on this matter. What do members feel?
I do not think that the police are deferring at all; I think that they are being consistently obstructive. This committee knows better than others that Police Scotland is very adept at redaction; we have seen it in action at first hand. I suspect that Police Scotland is hoping that this will go away and that we will not come back, but I do not think that its response is acceptable.
I appreciate that this is not an agenda item—I am being reminded of that. However, I am in the chair, and given that we have had great difficulty in getting witnesses to come before us and in obtaining evidence on this issue, I feel that this is yet another nail in the coffin.
That is now on the record and I would like to write to Police Scotland to say that we would prefer—I will be polite—to have the redacted documents in time for our next evidence session, bearing in mind that we are running out of time. The committee does not sit during the last week of the session and we will soon be into purdah, when the Parliament will no longer be sitting. We want to deal with this before that happens. Do you agree?
Members indicated agreement.
Thank you. I will suspend for a couple of minutes to allow the witnesses to come in.
10:02 Meeting suspended.
I now move on to agenda item 1, which is a decision on taking items 5 and 6 in private. Item 5 is consideration of a report on the legislative consent memorandum on the Armed Forces Bill, and item 6 is consideration of our work programme. Do members agree to take those items in private?
Members indicated agreement.
Air ais
AttendanceAir adhart
Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006