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I am glad that you mentioned that. As we are all aware, and as numerous committees of the Parliament have identified, the mortality rate associated with Scotland’s issue with drugs is still unacceptably high. Arguably, that is a public health issue, but behind all that is a criminal issue of supply that meets demand. Major, serious organised criminal gangs are still operating in Scotland. There are production facilities in Scotland, and there is importation across the border from England and from overseas. It feels like the situation is getting worse, not better. The truth of that resonates in the number of people who are still dying on the streets of Scotland, particularly from synthetic drugs. I appreciate that Police Scotland will say that it takes the issue very seriously and is pumping a lot of resource into it, but the statistics speak for themselves. Again, can you give the public some comfort that Police Scotland is addressing the issue?

Have any officers refused to carry it?

What is your current attrition rate? What is the average age of a police officer in Scotland and at what age do you start to lose people? We have kept a watching eye on that over the years and there is a feeling that we are losing many new recruits, who go through training, join the force and find it incredibly difficult, stressful or not rewarding for all the reasons that you mentioned. They might have to sit in an accident and emergency department for seven hours or deal with someone in their home who is having a mental health crisis, or they are abused or attacked. Surely that is not what people signed up to do in their careers with Police Scotland. I am keen to get some statistical information on whether the picture is getting better or worse.

It is interesting that the report identifies the arbitrary figure of 16,500, which is, in essence, a finance-based target. The report said—I am paraphrasing—that there was no evidence that 16,500 officers was the right number to deliver effective policing for the future. I understand that, on top of that 16,500, you have identified a need for a further 850 officers over the next two years and a further 350 staff—that is 1,200 more, in addition to the 16,500. However, there has been commentary to the effect that there is a lack of evidence that 16,500 is the right number.

How can you be in a position to ask your colleague who is sitting next to you for more money and more resource budget for more people when you do not even know whether that is the number of people that you will need?

Are you comfortable that the Government has responded accordingly and given you adequate resources to deal with that issue?

You will be aware of the number of high-profile cases of knife crime in our cities, which often involve groups of young men. A lot of casework is coming through in relation to that issue. People are genuinely concerned about and afraid of what seems to be a perceived, if not a statistical, increase in knife crime in some town centres. I thought that we as a country had dealt with that issue many years ago, but there seems to have been an increase in gang activity, which puts the public at risk. We are not talking about the typical late Saturday nights here—such activity is taking place in the middle of the day on a weekday. Is that an area of concern for Police Scotland? What is being done about it?

I think that you see my point. The flares are getting into the stadium in people’s pockets, down their socks or in other ways, so there is still an issue. The police now have additional powers that they did not have a couple of years ago, so officers on the ground outside the stadium before the match have additional powers to prevent flares from getting in in the first place, but they are still getting in, so there is a problem.

When a mob turns up outside an asylum hotel, for example, the police have a duty to turn up and keep the peace if there are factions with different views—I understand that.

The general point that the Audit Scotland report makes is that 16,500 seems to be an arbitrary number. We would like to have a more evidence-based analysis of how many police officers and back-office staff you need and what the mix of officers and skill sets should look like, given the changes in crime and in the world. Perhaps I will re-read the Official Report after the meeting to see whether I can take any comfort from the answers, but it is an important point.

An issue that is linked directly to that is the changing nature of crime itself. Of course, we have some good news in that regard. I know that we have a habit of pointing only towards the negatives, but I believe that ministers are keen to make the point that there has been an overall reduction in crime rates in Scotland. However, there have been significant increases in some areas in the past five years that should be a massive cause of concern to us all. Sexual crimes, crimes of dishonesty, crimes against society and non-sexual crimes of violence have all risen year on year and over a five-year period. Some of those increases have been significant—for example, cases of rape and attempted rape have risen by as much as 26 per cent.

That points to a picture of a wider public who may feel safer because there has been a reduction in areas such as murder and homicide, but there has been a massive increase in other types of crime. What confidence do you have that the public can be reassured that, despite those hikes, policing is still doing its job?

How many times did officers use the power of stop and search?

What about non-warranted staff?