Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you, cabinet secretary.

I ask members to indicate by putting an R in the chat box or raising their hand if they have any questions on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill LCM. I am not seeing anything, which is fine.

Likewise, do members have any questions in relation to the Judicial Review and Courts Bill LCM? There are no questions, so we will move on to the next item of business, which is consideration of any issues for our final reports on the LCMs.

I will again start with the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill LCM. Do members have any final views that they wish to include in the committee’s report on the LCM?

Members have raised no issues, so does the committee agree that the Scottish Parliament should give its consent to the relevant provisions in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, as set out in the Scottish Government’s draft motion? We are agreed.

Are members content to delegate to me the publication of a very short factual report on the outcome of our deliberations on the LCM? Members are content. The issue will now move to the chamber for all members to decide on the basis of the report that we will prepare.

I turn to the second LCM, on the Judicial Review and Courts Bill. I invite members to share their views on any issues that they would like to include in the committee’s report on the LCM.

Members have raised no issues, so does the committee agree that the Scottish Parliament should give its consent to the relevant provisions in the Judicial Review and Courts Bill, as set out in the Scottish Government’s draft motion? We are all happy with that.

Are members content to delegate to me the publication of a very short factual report on the outcome of our deliberations on the LCM? Members are content. As with the previous LCM, the issue will now move to the chamber for all members to decide, on the basis of our report.

That concludes our consideration of the two LCMs. I thank the cabinet secretary and his officials for their attendance.

That concludes the public part of the meeting. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 22 December, when we will take evidence from the Lord Advocate on prosecuting cases that involve violence against women and girls.

Welcome back. I am pleased to welcome our second panel of witnesses: Keith Brown, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans, and Mr Willie Cowan, the deputy director of the Scottish Government criminal justice division.

I ask everybody to keep questions and answers as succinct as possible. I will allow up to an hour for this panel.

I invite the cabinet secretary to make some brief opening remarks before we move to questions.

I am very aware that time is tight. The cabinet secretary is waiting, and we have already pushed him back. I suggest that, with members’ agreement, DCC Graham should respond to Katy Clark’s question in writing. That would be helpful.

Pauline McNeill would like to come in briefly on this topic.

Thank you very much. We certainly look forward to updates on how that area of work is progressing.

We will move on to questions from members about taking statements.

Our next item of business is the continuation of our consideration of evidence on efforts to improve the ways in which we prosecute violence against women and girls and on how we support the survivors of such crimes. I refer members to papers 1 and 2.

I am pleased to welcome two senior representatives of Police Scotland: Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Graham of the crime and operational support division and Detective Chief Superintendent Sam Faulds, the head of the public protection unit within the specialist crime division.

I will allow up to an hour for this panel. Before we start, I will go over a few practical points. This is a fully virtual meeting, and I intend to use the chat function as the means of communication. If you want to come in, please type R in the chat function and I will bring you in, if time allows.

If we lose the connection to a member or a key witness, I will suspend the meeting and try to get them back. If we cannot do so after a reasonable period of time, I will have to deem the person to be not present and we will continue. If I lose my connection, our deputy convener will take over. If we lose him, too, our colleague Rona Mackay will step in as temporary convener with the committee’s agreement.

Please keep questions and answers as succinct as possible. If that is clear and there are no questions, we will make a start. I refer members to the sheet with the order of questions on it.

DCC Graham, I have a question about Lady Dorrian’s review of the management of sexual offences cases. In the written evidence that was submitted to the committee’s September round table on violence against women and girls, Police Scotland listed which of Lady Dorrian’s recommendations had its support. Those included the creation of a specialist court for serious cases, independent legal representation for complainers and single-judge trials for rape cases

What action has Police Scotland taken in response to the recommendations, bearing in mind that the review was published back in March?

Good morning and welcome to the 13th meeting of the Criminal Justice Committee in 2021. We have apologies from Russell Findlay. Fulton MacGregor joins us online.

Our first item of business is to agree whether to take agenda item 3, which is consideration of this morning’s evidence, in private. Are we agreed to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

We are certainly aware of trauma-informed approaches. That issue has been raised and members may come back to it later.

Another key issue is communication and engagement with witnesses, by which I mean survivors and complainers. There has been some commentary about and criticism of that issue. There has been a suggestion that there should be a single point of contact—someone who could advocate for an individual and chaperone them through the process. Has there been any consideration of that?

I have a question about the timescales for working through the proposed changes, in particular in relation to your work with justice partners in establishing a specialist court. Forgive me—earlier, I conflated domestic abuse courts and specialist courts when I was referring to specialist courts.

How long do you anticipate that that process might take?

I will bring in Jamie Greene, to be followed by Collette Stevenson.