 The next item of business is a debate on motion 3098, in the name of Keith Brown, on a new vision for justice, and I invite members who wish to speak in the debate to press their request to speak buttons, and I call on Keith Brown to speak to and move the motion up to 11 minutes, Cabinet Secretary. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I'm grateful for the opportunity today to present the Scottish Government's new vision for justice in Scotland. We want to transform our justice services and put people at the heart of everything that we do. We do have a long and proud tradition of effective justice in Scotland, and we have worked hard over many years to strengthen and modernise the justice system in which individuals and communities can have trust, but we recognise that we must do more. Our vision for justice will continue to strive to deliver a just, fair, resilient Scotland, and I am bold in the ambition that the people of Scotland should be living in safer, even safer, more tolerant and inclusive communities, free from inequality and hate. A Scotland where there is less crime and unintentional harm in our communities and where we all have fair access to justice, that where we do experience crime something is done. A Scotland where we will be treated as people first and foremost and where our voices will be heard and be supported to recover from the trauma that we have experienced. A Scotland where those who have committed offences will be supported in rehabilitation by the most effective means, primarily remaining in our communities with support and opportunities for fair work, employment and housing. I would like to highlight two key messages from that vision. All our justice services, including those delivered by our third sector partners and the legal profession, must be person-centred and trauma-informed. No matter our role or our interaction with justice services, we know that how we are treated affects our feelings about the confidence that we have in the justice processes. Those experiences are often as important as the conclusion of a case or a dispute. Delivering person-centred services will ensure that a person's needs and views are respected, that people will receive timely, clear communication which they can understand and individuals and families will be involved in decisions which affect them. Many of the issues that bring people to the justice system, whether they are victims or those accused of crime, are very traumatic. It is our duty to minimise further trauma or to inflict retraumatisation to help recovery. We will embed trauma-informed practice and ensure that our justice services recognise the prevalence of trauma and adversity. We have already invested £250,000 over three years to fund a trauma specialist at NHS Education for Scotland to help drive forward development of a trauma-informed responsive workforce and justice services in relation to the needs of victims and survivors. Secondly, we must work across our public services to improve outcomes for individuals and focus on prevention and early intervention. The causes of crime are complex and varied. However, we know that to address the causes of crime we must tackle societal inequalities such as gender inequality, child poverty, mental ill health, addiction and adverse childhood experiences. Those are the issues that are beyond the responsibility of justice alone but which justice has a role in responding to. I am determined that Scotland's public services work together to address those and that individuals are supported at the earliest opportunity to improve their life chances and ultimately to reduce the risk of offending and re-offending. By focusing on early intervention, we can also ensure that the right services are provided at the right time and where possible support people to avoid contact with the justice services. I have three priority areas of action. First of all, women and children. Violence against women and girls in any form has no place in our vision for a safe, strong, successful Scotland. It damages health and wellbeing, it limits freedom and potential and is a violation of the most fundamental human rights. The Government is committed to tackling the behaviour that stems from systemic, deep-rooted women's inequality, which leads to violent and abusive behaviour by men directed at women and girls, precisely because they are women and girls. We must recognise the role of a justice system plays in perpetuating this inequality. Our justice system was historically designed by men for men. Put simply, it does not meet the needs of women and children in our society. Survivors tell us that how they are treated by justice services affects their feelings of confidence in the justice process. Low conviction rates for sexual crimes are also a real cause for concern. That is why we want to improve how the justice system can better serve women and ensure that survivors have trust in the criminal justice process. I welcome the establishment of the new women's justice leadership panel, chaired by the minister, Ash Regan. Lady Dorian, in her report on the improving the management of sexual offences, made a number of recommendations to benefit and empower women who experience sexual abuse. A governance group led by the Scottish Government in comprising key stakeholders meant for the first time on 21 December. That group will drive forward progress and detailed consideration on the individual and collective recommendations in Lady Dorian's report. We also have work to do to improve justice for children. We are committed to keeping the promise. We will continue to deliver a reinforced and reinvigorated whole system approach to prevent youth offending and, to the extent possible, no under its 18s will be remanded or sentenced to detention in a young offenders institute. We will continue to invest in services to strengthen support for families affected by parental imprisonment and to listen to the voice of the child in family law cases. During the lifespan of the vision, we will also fulfil our commitment to provide access to a bairmshoose for every child who needs it. Overall rates of offending have fallen under this Government. However, we must ensure that those who are victims are heard. We must offer approaches to justice that place victims at the heart and support them in their recovery. We will deliver on our commitment to a point of victims commissioner to provide their independent voice for victims. We will also look towards progressing different forms of justice, including restorative justice, which allow victims to take a prominent role. We know that delay and uncertainty cause great stress to victims and survivors. Covid-19 has put significant pressure on our justice system, increasing the time for cases to progress. That brings additional stress to victims. While we continue to recover our services and reduce the backlog of cases, we must avoid going back to the system as it was pre-pandemic, by embracing innovative approaches that allow our services to operate efficiently and with the needs of victims at the heart. We have established a justice recovery fund of £53.2 million in the next financial year to be allocated to recovery, renewal and transformation activity across the justice system. Although there will always be a place for prison in our society, we must support people in their rehabilitation in the most appropriate and effective setting. Many of those who offend have themselves experienced poverty, disadvantage, adverse childhood experiences, trauma and have often had substance abuse or health problems that require support. Ultimately, the evidence demonstrates that community interventions are more effective than short prison sentences at addressing offending behaviour and reducing the risk of re-offending. Just to repeat that point, communities at interventions are more effective than short prison services at addressing offending behaviour and reducing the risk of re-offending. Surely we all want to reduce the risk of re-offending. The consultation on bail and release from custody arrangements closed yesterday after running for 12 weeks. That represents the first step in a wider discussion about how custody should be used in a modern progressive Scotland. The responses to that consultation will inform the legislation that we bring to Parliament for scrutiny. Additionally, a refreshed national community justice strategy has been developed. That will set out clear aims for partners, with an emphasis on early intervention and encouraging a further shift away from the use of custody. Our public protection remains paramount and for many crimes that are committed, there are victims who have suffered and continue to do so. As we work to ensure effective rehabilitation on recovery for those who are offended, that must be balanced with victim safety in their own recovery from harm and trauma. That is a principle that we have taken forward in our work on bail supervision. The new guidelines place a specific emphasis on victim safety in decision making, with greater focus on using demand for those who pose a risk of serious harm. There are two views about how the justice system can evolve. We can have the purell practice of trying to look tough on crime after crime has happened. That usually involves, and that is after victims have suffered, by locking more people up for longer periods than building more in bigger prisons. Paid for, presumably, by slashing police numbers by around 17,000. However, it is not tough enough to make sure that the difficult decisions that are required will lead to less crime being committed. That means fewer victims and less suffering. Our new vision for justice has been developed in collaboration with our justice partners, and it has been endorsed by the national justice board. Our year one delivery plan also published today demonstrates the commitments that the Government and the justice agencies have already made. However, we need to recognise to do more. Over the coming months, we will be working across the justice sector and beyond to develop a delivery plan, setting out our medium and long-term actions for the rest of this parliamentary term and beyond. I would like to conclude today by making a commitment that I will ensure that Scotland's justice services, along with the minister, are transformed to meet the needs of people in today's society. Justice will be for you, with you at heart. I move the motion in my name. I am pleased to be opening for my party in this debate, and I now move the amendment in my name. The Government's latest iteration of its justice strategy comes off the back of a tremendous piece of work by the Parliament's new criminal justice committee, which rightly praises those at the co-face of delivering justice our front-line police, our prison staff and those in the third sector who support victims when they have nowhere else to turn. For every nod of thanks, it also raises serious questions about some of the chronic themes that seem to reoccur in every iteration of the Parliament's justice committee. After just seven months in office, our committee was very clear to us that history is repeating itself. It is bold in the opening pages. It reads, It is our view that we cannot keep scrutinising the same issues and recommending changes without seeing signs of substantive progress. Those are perennial problems, problems that have fallen foul of one justice secretary after another. However, well-meaning, promising action but under-delivering for the victims of crime. Be it the dragging of heels over Suzanne's law, which Humza Yousaf promised to bring in last year, or introducing controversial new laws on hate crime or offensive behaviour, which divided not justice chamber but the public mood itself. The Government motion today, I admit, contains a number of sensible points around reoffending and giving victims a voice, but it fails to take a shred of responsibility for any failures in the status quo. Notably, and I say regrettably as well, which is why my amendment gives these issues some much-needed airtime and make no apologies for doing so, because behind every statistic is a victim. Victims of the justice system appear in very different ways. The assaulted prison officer in hospital, the police officer in a leaky office or driving an ageing car, the female victim of sexual crime who is forced to seek and indeed find justice in the civil courts because the criminal courts have simply failed them, or the family member of a murder victim who bumps into their child's killer in the local supermarket. When they had absolutely no idea that person had even been released, or the young woman whose case against her domestic abuser was dropped, and no one from the Crown told her why or what happens next, because delivering justice for all of them matters, every cog in the wheel needs to be properly resourced for it to work. Those are not abstract scenarios. Those are real-life ones. Of course, the pandemic has placed enormous pressures on our justice system. No one denies that, but the issues that I am raising today are chronic ones, not Covid ones. The Government, which we have heard it again today, frequently rests on the laurels of its mantra that overall crime is falling. Let us take a look at that. The Government very rarely admits from the front benches that violent crime in Scotland has gone up every year since 2014, or the shocking rise in LGBT hate crime, up 31 per cent in the same period, or the doubling of sexual offences in the last decade. The SNP's 2007 manifesto boldly claimed that public confidence is an integral part of criminal justice, and if that perception is negative, it is fundamentally undermined. That was as true then as it is today, Presiding Officer. Of course, our police must be able to deliver without its hands tied behind its back. The SPA were abundantly clear with us and abundantly clear with the Government on what they think it needs. This year's £45.5 million capital budget is the same as last year's. Some will call that protecting the budget, others will call it for what it is, a real-terms cut. The SPA told us that it needed £466 million in capital funding over the next five years to meet its own outcomes in the national performance framework. We already know that that is £218 million short in the same period. 25 per cent of our police stations are in poor condition. 50 per cent of police vehicles should have been replaced. Officers are stressed. They are under resourced. They are overworked. If you do not believe me, Cabinet Secretary, talk to them. These are not abstract problems. These are real-life ones. Of course, when you get to court, the problems do not end there. Long before this chamber had ever heard of Wuhan, there was a backlog of 13,400 cases in our sheriff courts. That has now tripled. It now sits at over 45,000 in our high courts. If a trial is not going to take place until 2026, how is that delivering justice for the accused or the accuser? That leads to our next problem, remand. Between 2020 and 2021, the remand population grew by shocking and staggering 78 per cent, which was putting huge amounts of pressure on an already creaking prison system. 42 per cent of young people in prison are on remand. Anyone who has spent more than a couple of hours talking to young men in prison on remand probably held their longer than even a guilty sentence wherever have rendered them there. Ask them if they think that the Government has their life chances at the heart of the justice system. Equally, systemic funding problems in legal aid, which are seen not just those concerns ignored, but willfully argued against by the Government. You know things are bad when defence lawyers are going on strike citing a lack of co-operation from the Government. Of course, the minister says that there is nothing to see here, and the lawyers will tell us otherwise, but either way must be fixed. Then, of course, there is the court process itself. Far too many victims of crime in this country feel that the system is stacked against them. We have heard powerful evidence from the victims of abuse. Cases delay time after time, cases dropped with no reason given, lack of communication, no impact statements and for some the torture of seeing the perpetrator handed down a community order. Of course, the presumption against short sentences leaves judges no option but to hand down community sentences. That is not theoretic. People are released early and go on to commit crime. The horrific case of Esther Brown is one that should shock us all. It is not enough to say that that is an isolated incident. One victim is one victim too many in our eyes. That same 2007 manifesto says that individuals must accept that they are actions of consequences. People are tired of excuses. My goodness, how things have changed in this Government? Instead of citing the rights of offenders, what about the rights of victims? Diversion from custody only works if there is something to divert to. Meaningful community sentences, meaningful ones, must reduce the rate of re-offending, which goes back to my original point. The public must have confidence that the alternatives are meaningful, fair and realistic. In conclusion, the Government has to acknowledge the public mood on those issues. The promises that they made 15 years ago were admirable ones, but since then far too many people have been failed and far too many people are looking on in despair at the direction of travel. Victims do not choose to be victims, perpetrators do, and we forget that far too often in the debates. It is time that we put their rights first. I now call on Pauline McNeill to speak 2 and to move amendment 3098.1. I move the amendment in my name. I hope that the Scottish Government will support the Labour Party's amendment this evening because we are tempted to be constructive in backing significant reforms in the criminal justice system during the term of this Parliament, but we have some specific views to offer. I want to begin with an overview of our prison system. Our prison system is far from a modern prison estate system, and the pandemic has set us back in many ways. It is deeply concerning. Scotland as a nation has such a high demand population, I agree with Jamie Greene on that point. As the Scottish Government points out in its vision for justice, this is a problem for population management, overcrowding, easy major problem in our prisons, and reports have noted that Berlin has been operating at more than 40 per cent over capacity in the last couple of years, but I actually think that it is a lot longer. The vision also notes that international evidence suggests that remands are associated with negative effects that may hinder longer-term resistance from crime, including an increased risk of suicide, mental distress, disintegration of social reports and family ties and disruption to employment that increased the likelihood of re-offending a poor release. No-one should need any convincing that one of the jobs that we must do in this Parliament is to reduce the remand population. We need to tackle this urgently. I look forward to hearing proposals from the Scottish Government on how they plan to reform the bailout and if electronic tagging is going to be used as an alternative to custody where appropriate. Ar aiding prison estate accentuates the difficulties borne by staff management and management. Prison staff have written to me to raise concerns. I have had several letters that raised concerns about the staffing levels putting pressure on prison officers doing their job. I have asked twice now for a meeting with the Scottish Prison Service if I could just use this opportunity to say I quite like a response to my letter. If we want to have minimum standards, we desperately need to modernise the estate. It works still not started on the new Berlin prison and set to miss the deadline for 2025. I agree with the cabinet secretary that prison is appropriate for many offenders and will continue to remain so, but for some punishment it is better conducted out with prison and community sentences. Community sentences can be more effective in preventing re-offending than prison sentences, but the only way in which judges are going to use community sentencing more is if they are confident that they are robust. The number of deaths in custody remains too high. There were 54 deaths in custody in 2021. The figure has more than doubled since 2015. It is also taking far too long to complete fatal accident inquiries. The average length of time of an FAI in 2021 was almost three years. That is unacceptable for families waiting to find out the conclusion of an FAI. Again, I await the Government's response on the independent report that says that, where that happens, there should be unfaired access to establish the cause of death. Cabinet secretary, I thank the member for taking intervention just to quickly cover up a couple of points that we have had at the stakeholder meeting, which discussed the deaths in custody report with stakeholders. The governance group will shortly be established just to say that the Government will be supporting the Labour motion. I will make sure that the request to meet with SPS happens as quickly as possible. They are currently undergoing a recruitment exercise for a new chief executive. I will make sure that that happens as soon as possible. Finally, on the bail and reform, I would hope that the Labour Party and the member would support the proposals on the bail and reform bill, because that is the only way as a Government that we can tackle that issue. We cannot tell the courts to do those things, so we have to do it through legislation. It may be that there is a difference of opinion on elements of it, but hopefully we will get broad support. I can certainly guarantee that the cabinet secretary will get very serious consideration when we see the actual formulation of it, but we are clear that sheriffs and judges need to be given scope within the act to be able to make different decisions. However, there has been a moment in recent times that is critical as this moment comes to tackling the widespread problem of violence against women. We all agree. Previous debates have highlighted that, and that is why Scottish Labour wants the equally safe programme to be rolled out across Scotland as soon as possible. The sad testimony that we have heard from women who have been victims of sexual violence illustrates that. That is why we need to make progress in the cost-cutting work. I do note that it says that in the vision that was released today, but we need to work between the justice, equality and education if we are really going to make any serious progress. We are now having to see women seek justice for rape through the civil courts. Running through that is the testimony of women who say that as victims they feel treated as criminals. That is why Scottish Labour also wants to look at how we balance support for victims in the process. There should be one point of contact in the court system and a place for victims who want to know what is happening with their case. We need to broaden the scope of the circumstances where a victim of sexual offence can be given free legal advice. The criminal justice committee heard from Ms M that she had to constantly chase the procurator fiscal. No-one would tell her what is going on. Another victim, last week on a BBC Scotland radio programme, had exactly the same complaint. I believe that it is a recurring theme. We need to make it easier for victims. I also agree with Jamie Greene on that point. As the cabinet secretary also said, the convictions for rape, 43 per cent of rape and attempted rape trials result in a conviction compared to 88 per cent overall for other crimes, which tends to indicate that the balance that you would expect in a criminal justice system does not exist when it comes to sexual offences. One thing that is missing from the Government motion is any reference to access to civil justice. We do not currently have enough lawyers doing legal aid in my concluding remarks. I think that it is really important to address the question of civil justice in the vision. I conclude by saying that I wish we could have a longer debate, as Jamie Greene said, to talk about how we can support our police force. If we thank them for what they did in the pandemic, there are many issues to be conducted on that. I think that there should be full scrutiny of the Crowns role in the case against Rangers football club. We do not want to see striking lawyers in the months ahead. Let us resolve this. We do have a system to be proud of, but we need to make more progress. I am sure that we can do that in the coming years. I now call Liam McArthur to speak to and to move amendment 3098.2. I am grateful for the chance to participate in this debate, which mirrors one that we had in June last year. On that occasion, I set out the Scottish Liberal Democrats case for reforming the fatal accident inquiry system, a system beset by delays and failings that deny families' answers and society an opportunity to learn lessons. I made the case 2 for splitting the dual role of the Lord Advocate, recognising growing concerns over both perceived or potential for conflicts of interests. Sadly, both proposals were opposed by the SNP and, indeed, by green MSPs, presumably auditioning for the coalition government yet to come. The case for both those reforms remains strong. Indeed, they are referred to in the Tory amendment, although few issues do not get a name check in the Tory amendment. I want to concentrate today on an aspect of our prison and wider justice system that is critical in allowing individuals an opportunity to turn their lives around while also reducing rates of re-offending and making communities safer. Of course, we need a justice system that works in providing justice to victims and survivors, but it also needs to help alongside interventions in education, health, housing and other policy areas to reduce crime and offending behaviour. In that sense, I have no difficulty at all in supporting the Government motion and the very sensible amendment in Polly McNeill's name. We should absolutely aspire to a person's centre and trauma informed justice system and design services accordingly. The only response to a prison population that exceeds anything found elsewhere in Europe, with the exception of Russia and Turkey, is to commit to prison reform to reduce the numbers that we lock up. More than half Scotland's prisons are now overcapacity and 1,200 prisoners are double bunking in single cells. I'm disappointed that Jamie Greene, a good friend and someone whom I respect enormously, chooses in his amendment to pander to the bang him up and throw away the key brigade. The dog whistles about soft-touch justice and criminals roaming free are wrong and counterproductive. They offer no answers to the question of how we build safer communities and opportunities for individuals to make positive contributions while moving away from offending behaviour. Jamie Greene. I thank his kind words, perhaps not about the amendment, but it remains the case that, over the last decade, 44 per cent of people released from prison go on to re-offend. There is a systemic problem here in how we deal with offences in prison. The current strategy and historic strategy of re-offending clearly have not worked. We know that people who spend longer in prison are less likely to re-offend. Liam McArthur. The evidence shows us that the incarceration itself disrupts patterns of work, housing agreements, relationships that they have within their communities and is hugely disabilising. Throwing them back out in the community and expecting them not to re-offend is unrealistic. I will come on in a second to some of the behaviours or the activity that we need to see in prisons to support that ahead of release, but I do not think that any of the evidence that sustains the argument that locking people up for short sentences is effective. Let me set out ways that the Scottish Government might turn the vision into practice in terms of our justice system. The figures show that incarceration rates are up across almost all ages in crime categories, and that means that crimes are more likely, people are less safe and our prisons are operating extensively in revolving door policy. In 2020, a through-care service that provided prisoners with support with housing, medical care and benefits after release was cancelled. The rehabilitation service helped 100 prisoners a month move away from re-offending but was dropped as staff were redeployed. The third parties have stepped in. I believe that we need a reintroduction of the service alongside a right to welfare, housing and healthcare opportunities within 48 hours of release. Purposeful activity in prisons is another key element in cutting re-offending. It equips people for employment, improving literacy and numeracy skills and offering opportunities for accredited qualifications. All that plumeted during the pandemic, yet evidence shows that shutting down opportunities for purposeful activity closes off routes to rehabilitation. On top of that, we know that more than 2,000 are now being held in Scottish prisons who have not even been convicted of a crime. A Scottish Liberal Democrat FOI revealed that the number of untried prisoners held in remand has risen by 40 per cent in the last three years alone. That is unacceptable and unsustainable. It also places pressure on staff and prisoners leading among other things to increase mental health issues. The Scottish Government response so far has been high on promises but sadly low and slow on delivery. Meanwhile, to be trauma informed, our justice system must ensure that the voices of victims and survivors are heard and their experiences improved. Victims often speak of secondary victimisation and some have described the experience of the justice system as worse than the crime itself. Listening to the lived experience of victims allows us to make targeted changes to improve their experience, such as introducing a right to anonymity for victims of sexual crimes. Scottish Liberal Democrats would also give victims a voice using feedback form support organisations on the victims task force. We also need to see incorporation of the Barnahouse model referred to by the cabinet secretary for child victims and witnesses, but that to be accelerated. We need to treat domestic abuse survivors more fairly by building in a presumption that perpetrators will be required to leave the share at home. All those policies could be enacted with relative ease. All would help deliver rather than simply describe a new vision for justice. Scottish Liberal Democrats are committed to working with others to achieve such an outcome. I have pleasure in moving the amendment in my name. We will now move to the open debate. I call Audre Nicolle to be followed by Alexander Burnett. Thank you, Presiding Officer. In the short time since the new parliamentary session began, the challenges faced by the justice system have featured prominently in chamber business and rightly so. Justice touches absolutely everyone, and in the words of Martin Luther King, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. The motion brought forward today is timely and welcome, setting out a vision for a justice system that is fair and transparent and meets the needs of a modern and contemporary Scotland. It recognises the magnitude of the task and the work required to sustain the downward trend in recorded crime and to improve the experiences of victims while breaking the cycle of offending for those caught in the revolving door of crime and holding those who offend to account, whether through custodial or community justice options. Last year, the criminal justice committee took evidence from experts that was working in and coming into contact with the sector, and while we heard evidence on a wide range of subjects, a unifying theme was an urgent need for reform in many areas. Some of that linked to the pandemic, but many of the issues raised were significantly predated by the pandemic and are complex and multifaceted. As a critical friend to the justice sector and Scottish Government, our report asks the Scottish Government and key partners to grasp the nettle and take bold action to improve outcomes in the sector. I am therefore pleased that the motion brought forward today outlines the new vision for justice that will support the Scottish Government to continue to transform our justice system. The motion is by necessity, comprehensive and rightly reflects the commitment required to improve the experience of victims putting trauma-informed approaches front and centre. As Pauline McNeill alluded to, I have an example of only this weekend. I spoke to a survivor of high-tariff domestic abuse who had been referred by her local women's aid service to a solicitor who had undergone domestic abuse training only to find that they did not offer a legal aid option. A frustrating example of an unintended barrier to services that exists but are not joined up. From a personal perspective, I am pleased that the motion includes the need for custody to be a safe and secure environment for those in custody and for those working in prisons, no matter how counterintuitive it seems to many who believe in the notion of tough justice. Scotland's prison population is amongst the highest in western Europe and, although society rightly demands offenders are held to account and where appropriate imprisoned, it is incumbent on us to reconsider the role of custody in a much broader context. I recall having a conversation with a highly vulnerable young man I had just arrested not for the first time who compared his cycle of offending to having just fallen off a cliff, only to find the ambulance at the bottom. For young men like him, I want us to drive the ambulance back up to the top of the cliff. Of course, the budgetary landscape across all areas of government is extremely challenging. In our recent budget scrutiny report, the criminal justice committee outlined what we felt was a strong case for an overall increase in the budget for the criminal justice sector. I am pleased that the justice sector will see a total investment of £3.1 billion in 2022-23 to strengthen and reform services. Within the new strategy, I hope the cabinet secretary will look at whether there is scope to use existing expenditure as effectively as possible through, for example, alternatives to custody extending or introducing innovative practices and recycling underspend for use elsewhere in the system. In conclusion, I want to thank each and every person working across our justice sector for whom life has not been easy over the last couple of years as they have worked so hard to make life a bit better for others. We need you more than ever. I am pleased that the Scottish Government has given its commitment to Scotland's criminal justice system, and there are many things in this new vision that I would agree with. But once again, what the Scottish National Party Government falls short of is delivering. All that we have seen under this Government is broken promises, strategies and recommendations that end up in the gutter, budgets are slashed, prisons are overcrowded and police numbers continue to fall. My colleagues have repeatedly called for reforms to overhaul the SNP Government's current soft-touch approach and put victims at the centre through our proposed victim's law. I recently raised a series of questions to the Scottish Government on gender-based violence after being contacted by students who want to know what action is being promised to make people feel safer in their communities. In their response, the Scottish Government pointed to their equally safe strategy, which focuses on early intervention and prevention. I welcome the strategy and any campaigns that challenge dangerous and predatory behaviour. Yet those responses are just warm words. The equally safe strategy was first published in 2014, yet in September last year, the Crown Office statistics showed that domestic abuse charges increased by the largest amount in a single year in 2021. Domestic abuse charges have now reached the highest level in five years. Shockingly, many charges involving domestic abuse see no further action. Those statistics are completely unacceptable. The SNP Government must commit to doing more and putting in real policies that will reduce crime and support victims who are seeking justice. Many victims are not getting justice. The criminal court trial backlog currently stands at nearly 45,000 trials and may not be cleared until 2026. The Scottish Government has only provided an extra £4.2 million, not even a third of a £13.2 million identified by the courts to help tackle the backlog. Yet another blow to victims who do not have a trial in sight. The SNP Government's new vision looks to other forms of justice to reduce pressure on our prisons. However, currently there is no appropriate alternative to custodial sentences. The Justice Secretary recently stated that other options need to be credible and consistent, yet he makes these claims after the SNP have written off more than 262,000 hours of unpaid community work. One in three community sentences are never completed under the SNP. A record number of criminals are no longer being prosecuted for their crimes as diversions rose by 12 per cent, its highest level in seven years. Community sentences are becoming easier for criminals to complete, because fewer than other contain an element of unpaid work. This work is trivial at best, knitting, preparing flower beds, making bug hotels, bat boxes and hedgehog dens. Some of those may have a rehabilitative effect, but they are not going to satisfy victims and their families seeking justice. Where appropriate, offenders should take part in purposeful activities that will serve their communities, give them future prospects and, importantly, reduce re-offending rates. The reconviction rate in Scotland has just recorded its largest year-on-year increase. 28 per cent of offenders released in 2018-19 went on to commit another crime within 12 months. That has now come to a head under the SNP Government's Covid measures. In the 2020-21 annual report, the chief inspector of prisons for Scotland said that too many prisoners were locked up with too little to do before the pandemic, and then the situation was then exacerbated by the response to the pandemic. During Covid, many prisoners have been denied the chance to start programmes that were part of their sentence and would have allowed them to lead successful crime-free lives. There needs to be more opportunities available in prisons to enable residents to learn new skills, to take up work experience and to be able to reintegrate back into society once they have finished their sentence. Just this week, UK Justice Secretary Dominic Raab spoke on the importance of providing prisoners with a chance to earn money, doing honest work and pay their dues to society. For example, learning how to drive lorries, which is both beneficial to the individual and to the country as we overcome a labour shortage. There is a great need for this in our Scottish prisons to give residents practical work and knowledge that can plug Scotland's skills shortage. The reality is that the Scottish Government is either too ignorant or too slow to enact vital reforms, and its assurances for change do not inspire confidence. The statistics on remand, rehabilitation and reoffending are shocking. We need to put victims at the heart of our justice system, and the SNP's new vision for justice fails to do so. The new vision for justice will help the Scottish Government and its on-going work to transform the justice system, ensuring that it is fair and transparent and meets the needs of modern society. Much progress has been made in recent years under the SNP. Crime is down by almost half since 2008-9, including a 39 per cent cut in violent crime. Automatic early release has been ended, so long-term prisoners who pose an unacceptable risk to public safety will serve their full sentence. The reconviction rate is at one of its lowest levels in recent decades. The cashback for communities programme has also seen £110 million from the proceeds of crime committed to projects benefiting young people across Scotland. Many possible reforms have been or are being consulted on, including the bail and prison release bill. Options to extend digital practices and justice and reform of the three verdict system. The SNP manifesto in this year's programme for government set out the basis for many improvements in the justice system. A new community justice strategy will be developed, underpinned by investment, to substantially expand the available services. The police budget will be protected, supporting the police to tackle crime and keep our communities safe. A victims commissioner will be appointed, providing an independent voice for victims, championing their views and ensuring that victims' rights are front and centre. The commitment to trauma-informed and trauma-response of public services will be so important in the justice sector, putting victims at the heart. I have no doubt that this development will benefit victims of crime so that they are given the best support and advice possible. We must do everything to support victims of crime, but we must also work to cut crime and reduce re-offending so that there are fewer victims. The cabinet secretary has stated that the importance of addressing inequality and its far-reaching consequences in tackling crime. The cross-party criminal justice committee recommended that alternatives to custody such as bail, supervision and residential rehabilitation be considered. In terms of reducing re-offending, the evidence shows that the reconviction rate for community payback orders is lower than the reconviction rates for short, custodial sentences. The policy change for presumptions against short sentences is clearly a tool that can help to cut future crime rates and ultimately keep our communities safe. Of course, individual sentencing decisions are for the courts to make and will depend on the crime committed. Another issue that the committee discussed in our report is the issues surrounding Friday releases, something that can cause issues for both perpetrators and victims. Research shows that those released on a Friday are at a higher risk of re-offending since there is less support if anything available at the weekend. We also need to consider the impact on victims. If a perpetrator is released on a Friday and their victim is informed that day, then the victim could also be left with no support services over the weekend. I believe that a rule against Friday releases will prevent better outcomes all around. The Tories recognise the backlog in the justice system due to the impact of the pandemic, but they are against the Covid recovery and reform bill, which aims to tackle that by allowing certain hearings to be held over audio or video link and providing greater flexibility in the programming of court business. In their reference to police numbers, I think that what the Tories wanted to say is that the SNP has, in every single year, kept its manifesto commitment to have more police officers on the bait. Officer numbers fluctuate throughout the year. In between the pandemic and the police colleges being used for police officers in Glasgow for COP26, there has been limits on capacity. I am sure that everyone in the chamber will welcome the expected 300 new recruits through to start their training in a few weeks time. Let's remember that there are almost 1,000 more police officers in Scotland than when the SNP entered government, and we have 50 per cent more officers per capita here than in England and Wales under the Tories. Under the SNP, there are more police officers and crime is down. The pandemic has brought new challenges, but the new vision for justice will help to make Scotland's communities safer and transform the justice system so that it is fair and transparent and meets the needs of modern Scotland. Thank you, Presiding Officer. The motion before us looks unremarkable on its surface, but it does not address many of the systematic problems in the justice system. Two years ago, justice systems worldwide were brought into close focus after the murder of George Floyd in the United States. The question of equality took centre stage. This was the time of introduction and it's credit the Scottish Government recognised that. Here in Scotland, this resulted in the cross justice working group on race data and evidence. I pull its existence, but its output is telling. It tells us there is a lack of data, particularly where it comes to the experiences of black, Asian and minority ethnic people with the police and the justice system in general. A lack of lived experience in the existing studies on the justice system. As one of the community participants said, for the number of years that Scotland has had a very diverse ethnic population that we are still finding gaps is horrific. I agree because it questions the very basis that the Scottish Government is approaching this new vision for justice. This vision cannot be complete if we are blind to the lived reality of people like me of black, Asian and minority ethnic people. I would say to the Scottish Government that the simple existence of the cross justice working group is not enough. Its findings must be listened to and addressed if we are to increase trust in the justice system among the minority communities. I do not pretend getting the data is a simple task, but it is essential. A first step in seeing the problems those communities face accessing justice. Only then can we address those problems fully. Last year there was another telling statistic. Hate crime remained stable between 2014 and 2020 with around 7,000 incidents recorded. Most of these incidents, 62 per cent, had a racial component. Over the same period thankfully there was an increase in the number of hate crimes charged, but justice must include prevention as well as punishment. Surely as a society we can hope for more than to maintain a stable level of hate crime. The motion calls for a whole government approach to these problems, but we see very little evidence for this practice. This approach requires funding in the service and areas which have all too often been cut and neglected in recent years. Hate crime is just one aspect of crime where poverty and the social realities comes into play long before it even ends up in the criminal justice system. We must address the condition that allows these events to develop as well as dealing with them promptly once they happen, ensuring that the victims are supported. There are social justice and educational questions involved here, just as much as question of policing and persecution. The motion before us acknowledges that social economic circumstance matter, but this is not frankly a new vision. The government has been aware of these problems for over a decade, and yet they continue on their watch. As our amendment notes, this is an unfortunately common theme across the justice system. The chief inspector of prison said that there were entrance problems in our prison system, including overcrowding which remain unsolved. These long-standing issues cannot be blamed on the pandemic, and it seems only good fortune has prevented them from turning into a catastrophe during it. The pandemic has, of course, raised additional problems, including additional significantly of the code backlog. Our amendment rightly sees that as the highest priority because it impacts on the remand prisons and prisoners and on those awaiting justice only ours to the entrance problem. I mentioned a moment ago to sum up, Presiding Officer, the motion before us may set out a vision, but it neglects the reality of the justice system as people find it today. The Scottish Government must ensure that justice is accessible to all our communities, and it must act on the priorities that our amendments have set out. Only then can we restore confidence in our justice system and see that justice is promptly and effectively applied in the wake of the pandemic. I'm pleased to be speaking in this debate at a time when Scotland's justice system is in the verge of some exciting and transformational changes. Of course, there will be disagreements across the chamber in certain aspects of those changes in policy detail, but what can't be disputed is the fact that the Scottish Government and the judiciary know that change must come to make our legal system fit for purpose in today's changing world. We know that centuries-old traditional practice can render the wheels of justice to move slowly and adapting to change, but it must happen if we are to keep pace with reality and the basic human right of access to a fair and rehabilitative justice system. The Government's motion states that we are transforming the justice system to ensure that services are person-centred and trauma-informed, and as a convener of the cross-party group in adverse childhood experiences, I'm delighted by this progressive trajectory. We're also focusing on early intervention and improving outcomes, which will of course make our communities safer and improve the quality of life for so many people. More than half the young people in the United Kingdom have experienced ACEs, which all too often leads to offending and incarceration. As a convener of the cross-party group on women, families and justice and men's violence against women and children, urgent action is needed to improve the experiences of women and children and to ensure that voices of victims and survivors are heard and acted upon. Gender inequality, child poverty, mental ill health and addictions are all being addressed within the Scottish Government's new vision. We know that many women in prison for low-grade offences have suffered domestic abuse, head injuries and have mental health and addiction problems. Prison is no place for them. It wrecks families and exacerbates existing issues, which leads them there in the first place. Early intervention and holistic support are the only way to alleviate that. Equally, prison is no place for children and young people. I'm pleased that the Government recognises that and will take steps to stop young people being held in adult prisons. The balance must be shifted to ensure that the role of custody is used only when no alternative is appropriate, making greater use of alternative options in communities. Violence against women is the scourge of society, not just in Scotland and the UK but globally. During the criminal justice committee's private evidence sessions with victims of domestic abuse and sexual offences, we heard moving and disturbing accounts of women's journeys through the justice system. Last year's review by Justice Clart Lady Dorian highlighted a number of areas where improvements should be made. I'm pleased that the Scottish Government has committed to giving serious consideration to all the recommendations, including the introduction of specialist courts and allowing victims to pre-record their evidence. £4 million in the Scottish budget has been dedicated for victim services, measures to tackle violence against women and girls and support for the justice system to respond to victims' needs. I don't disagree with Jamie Greene that victims voices need to be heard, but I believe that the measures outlined by the justice secretary in the vision will enable that to happen. Let's be clear about the direction that we're going in. In the first 100 days since winning the election, the Scottish Government directed £5 million of new funding to rape crisis centres and domestic abuse services to help cut waiting lists. There's also a programme for government pledge to invest over £100 million to support front-line services and focus on prevention of violence against women and girls from school onwards over the next three years. We've launched a public consultation on the not-proven verdict, and I await the findings on that with keen interest. My long-heard personal view is that the not-proven verdict should be scrapped for crimes of sexual violence in the first instance. I believe that the not-proven verdict is having a detrimental impact on convictions. I also believe that the requirement for corroboration is largely to blame for the poor level of convictions in rape trials. Almost a quarter of trials for rape or attempted rape result in a non-proven verdict. Only 43 per cent of rape and attempted rape trials result in a conviction, compared to an 88 per cent overall conviction rate. Recent high-profile cases of victims being denied justice in a criminal court, having to go down the civil route, exemplify why the system needs changing. With the overall crime rate being down 46 per cent since 2008, the 2223 budget provides a total investment of over £3.1 billion to strengthen and reform Scotland's criminal justice system. Our new vision puts victims at the heart of the justice system, and I'm pleased to see that with the move to alternative sentencing, there's an increased investment of £47.2 million for community justice, a crucial part in this transformation. In conclusion, with the exception of serious offenders from whom the public must be kept safe, prison simply doesn't work. No good can come of locking up people who have lost their way in life, often through adverse experiences. We must look towards a humane and rehabilitative system of justice, and I believe that we are finally on the right track for that with this new vision of justice. The way that we experience crime is a product of inequality and imbalances of power, of social and economic pressures, of assumptions and intersecting injustices. It is clear from the evidence and data collected by the various parts of our justice system and from extensive research, both here and elsewhere, that bringing someone into the criminal justice system, even if it does not result in a caution, a charge being brought or a conviction, makes it much more likely that that person will be sucked further into the system with negative consequences for them and very likely their family and wider community. That is why I firmly believe, and I am pleased to see in the Scottish Government motion today, that tackling crime must be a trauma-informed whole government mission and that it must be rooted in human rights. We cannot deal with crime with the justice system alone. With this new vision for justice, I hope that we can develop and sustain cross-departmental working that enables a renewed focus on areas like youth work, community development, support for new parents and so on. The police should not be the people who are used to replace skilled and experienced youth workers or community workers, and yet that is so often what happens. That sucks people into a system that is dehumanising and deeply damaging. Of course, we need to address that issue of the system too, and I will come to that shortly. Evidence also shows significant generational and intergenerational relationships in criminal behaviour, and I think that that calls us to think much more holistically about prevention. We must, as part of our work towards the new just-in-caring Scotland that we want, provide appropriate, non-siloed support for so-called troubled families, and those families that have this would see health and social care benefits too. The whole government approach should not just be focused on prevention and early intervention. We must ensure that we support people coming out of the system appropriately. So often prisoners are released into homelessness, and that just perpetuates injustice. Let me turn now to our prison system. I believe that we need to be clearer in making the distinction between punishment and public safety. Prison tries to do both, but that is not always appropriate. We must act to reduce the numbers of non-violent prisoners, but we must also explore a different kind of public safety approach for dangerous people. It is right that dangerous people are kept away from the public, but that does not mean that it should be in a framework of punishment. Indefinite sentences are not good, and so post-punishment, there needs to be an alternative. We need urgent action to address the level of people on remand. We need to ask ourselves serious questions as to why remand numbers are so high if prison numbers are falling. We need a complete transformation of our prison system. Improving the prison estate is all very well and really important to ensure that human rights of those incarcerated are secured. Serious effort is needed to tackle the culture of bullying, violence, self-harm and suicide that we know exists and that damages both prisoners and prison staff. Radical culture change is necessary, and prisoners and staff must be included in the process. In the same way as tackling crime must be a whole government mission, working across departmental silos and with other public and third sector agencies, so must the offer that we provide victims, survivors and witnesses of crime seek to address not only issues of support, communication and compensation, but also restoration. Our current processes do not often achieve that. We have a responsibility to ensure that there is meaningful engagement with and support for victims, survivors and witnesses, perhaps especially women and children. We have much work to do to ensure that their voices are heard and that they have the support, information and involvement in processes that allow them to be free from fear and hopelessness. There is much more I want to say about the different elements in this vision, from violence against women and Lady Dorian's recommendations, the proposed victims commissioner, Covid recovery to the absence of civil justice, as Pauline Neal has already noted. There is so much more in here, but I will end with a plea for collaboration and engagement. Over the coming months, as we develop delivery and implementation plans for this strategy, we also need to involve wider society. There is a profound culture change underpinning this vision that needs citizen discussion and engagement. I look forward to working with the cabinet secretary and others across the chamber and beyond here to create and develop spaces that combine both expert and public understanding of the issue, enhancing support for transformational change. We need to find ways to provide richer information to our citizens, catalyzing conversations with people from all walks of life and garnering their contributions to inform the radically different state structures that we need to implement. Radical reform, perhaps particularly in justice, is often viewed with suspicion or distrust, but that need not be the only story. A better justice system means a safer society for us all, and direct citizen engagement can help to make this a reality. I now call Fulton McGregor, who is joining us remotely to be followed by Sharon Dowie. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is a pleasure to speak in this debate today, both as a member of the criminal justice committee and as a former criminal justice social worker. It is clear to me that the Scottish Government's new vision for justice will equip us with the ability to transform Scotland's justice system into one that is fair, can be held accountable and meets the needs of the people of our country. As others have already said before me, one of our main focuses is improving the experience of victims in the criminal justice system. As we have heard, the justice committee has been working on this for some time through various means, and we will remain committed to ensuring that our justice system is considering the needs of victims at all times. With our prom informed response, which promises to consider the voices of victims, we are building a new framework that will help victims in a compassionate manner. I also welcome the appointments of a victim commissioner who will give victims an independent voice, and I am particularly passionate about the needs of children who experience crime, and I am glad that we are taking a specialised approach where the trauma that children experience will be treated to head on. £4 million has been dedicated to victim services, measures to tackle violence against women and girls, and support for the justice system to respond to victims' needs, which shows our dedication in this area. As I said, Presiding Officer, I am particularly pleased about the steps to ease trauma for children and vulnerable witnesses in our justice system. The formation of a Bairns house or a children's house is one such approach, an approach that is radical across these islands and builds on evidence from our Nordic and Scandinavian neighbours. I was fortunate enough, Presiding Officer, to be in the Justice Committee in the last Parliament that went to Norway to see a Bairns house in action. It really is a transformative approach to our justice system in the way that we deal with children, young people and vulnerable witnesses within it. Another aspect that I am particularly pleased about is our recognition of the strong case that has been made for the abolition of the not proven verdict. The consultation on the verdict was opened on Monday 13 December last year. The consultation is sought to capture the views of a broad range of stakeholders, including legal professionals in the third sector and those with lived experience of the system. Our three verdict system is unique, as we have heard before, which is why gathering opinions from the public, as well as the legal sector, the third sector and those with direct experience of the justice system will give us an overall idea of how to proceed. It will run until 11 March 2022 and, as I have done before, I would encourage any of my constituents who are listening today and who have an opinion on this to please take part. The £3.1 billion that we are investing in 2022-23 is incredible, and that is exactly the level of funding that is needed to provide reforms while ensuring that our system bounces back from the Covid pandemic. A 7 per cent increase in funding shows that we recognise the vital role that the justice sector plays in our society. That is why I have every faith in the SNP Government and that we are delivering for justice, and perhaps crime being down 46 per cent since 2008-09 is testament to that. As members know, I am also a strong advocate for presumption against short-term sentences. As that is meant, we have also seen a greater uptake of community sentences. These are a proven way of rehabilitating offenders or those involved in offending. It also offers a chance for rehabilitation in the community. Reducing short sentences can be seen as a positive step forward to the Scottish Government, as it has been shown that those given a custodial sentence of one year or less are reconvicted nearly twice as often as those given community payback orders. The recent announcement of more investment in our criminal justice social work service services is certainly welcome, and I hope to see a concentration enabling more joint-up working between the agencies involved in our community payback orders. I want to end by giving a shout-out to my previous colleagues in the criminal justice social work sector. I know that they work day in, day out working with those who are on community payback orders, helping them to change their behaviours and separation with their victims and their communities, often to great success that we do not always hear about. They may also be working on domestic abuse programmes, the Caledonia programme. We talk a lot in this chamber about domestic abuse and quite rightly so, and we have brought in some quite radical domestic abuse legislation about prosecuting the accused in these situations. What we often do not talk as much about is who those who are working with those who commit domestic abuse and the success that they can get by getting those men, because it mainly is men, to change their behaviour. I want to shout out to them as well. I am dealing with many other aspects of criminal justice social work, including poverty, deprivation, youth work and much more. As you can imagine, I fully support this motion. We have heard a great deal from around the chamber today about the challenges that Scotland's justice system faces, from backlogs in the courts to rampant issues with drugs and violence in Scottish prisons. It is clear that people are all around the chamber that improvements are needed. At first sight, I welcomed this new strategy, the vision for justice in Scotland. I had hoped that it would be full of exciting ideas, reforms that would tackle Scotland's problem with crime, plans that would put more bobbies back on the beat, deliver justice to victims and ensure criminals received the time that they deserve. In this document, though, I found lots of warm words but not much substance. While there is loads to comment on here, I am aware of the time, so I am focusing my attention on the police. Our police have done a truly admirable job during the pandemic, called upon to go above and beyond the call of duty. Police Scotland officers and indeed all of our emergency service workers have weathered the challenges thrown in their faces with patience and compassion, but often at a great cost to their mental health. They deserve and have the support of the Scottish Conservatives, but they also need it from the Scottish Government. If we take equipment, for example, the police have been calling for body-worn cameras now for months. Those cameras would have been really useful during the height of the pandemic, but when Police Scotland asked for 10,000 of the devices, they received only 311. Given assaults on police staff increased by 6.3 per cent last year, with a staggering 6,942 attacks recorded, including spitting attacks from people with Covid, you would assume that those cameras would be a top priority for the Government. As far as I know, police are yet to take possession of the full number of cameras, but if the minister wishes to correct me in her closing statement then that would be fine. Of course, processing the footage from those cameras requires decent IT infrastructure, and here again the police are lacking. The Association of Scottish Police Superintendents went as far as saying that police ICT systems are largely still not fit for purpose. When we are seeing an increase in cybercrime, the last thing we need are outdated computers. Things end at worse when we look at the forces fleet of vehicles. The Scottish Police Federation has previously said that Police Scotland's fleet is aging with more than half of vehicles over five years old and with 150,000 miles on the clock. Only last week, newspapers were reporting that Police Scotland is using vehicles dating back to the 80s with one car turning 33 this year and over 500 vehicles in their 10th year of service. So, while Scottish criminals are driving porthys in Lamborghinis, our police are being sent out to do their job in cars dating from the fall of the Berlin Wall. But it's not just that IT systems are the vehicles that are aging, it's the police of state 2, moulding the carpets, buildings that aren't wind or watertight, or have sections moth-balled because they're in such a decrepit state. It's got so bad that a quarter of Scottish police buildings are now rated as being in poor condition. That's the reality that our police officers have to deal with on a daily basis, not to mention members of the public who can deal with them. No wonder the police are asking for £85.7 million in capital funding from the Scottish Government. They were left disappointed, though receiving only £53.7 million. I thank the member for taking intervention. She hasn't mentioned yet whether the police deserve to pay rise, which they got in Scotland but not elsewhere. Can she just tell us how much more in the budget the Tories will propose should we go to policing and where that money is going to come from? There is a lot of wasted money. If we were to waste money in ferries, if we were to waste money in 700,000 and several servants looking at the independence referendum, we could save money there in malicious prosecutions that were already mentioned. So there is money there that we could put towards the police. That's before you include the £218 million budget shortfall in the police's five-year strategic plan to add insult to injury. Police Scotland only received a £2.5 million increase in capital funding from the Scottish Government last year, and even that was only as a consequence of UK-wide police reform. Given those numbers, it's little surprised that, in the criminal justice pre-budget scrutiny consultation, the Scottish Police Federation said that the police service remains chronically underfunded. Perhaps the greatest problem overall is the issue of front-line police officers. Overworked, overstretched, underfunded. Whichever way the SNP tries to spin it, it's a fact that the number of police officers in Scotland has fallen to their lowest points since 2009. Twelve out of 13 local police divisions have seen their officer numbers cut since Police Scotland was formed, with nearly 650 fewer local police officers on the streets are responding to calls. Meanwhile, crimes like sexual assault are on the increase. The Scottish Government has a choice to make here. Do they support our hard-working police officers? Provide them with the funding and the equipment that they need? Or do they continue to make more and more unreasonable demands of them? Robbing Peter to pay Paul is one policeman put it. This new justice strategy was a chance to tackle crime at source, set out a plan for fair police funding and reset relations between the Scottish Government and the force. Sadly, there is little in the document that will be of comfort to the police officers out in the streets tonight trying to keep us safe. We now move to closing statements, and I call on Liam McArthur to wind up for the Liberal Democrats. I started by exhibiting offending behaviour towards Jamie Greeney's amendment, so let me rectify that by commending Mr Greene and his criminal justice committee colleagues on an excellent piece of work. I think that the analysis put forward in the report has been produced. I think that the justice to the evidence that the committee obviously heard covered a wide-ranging selection of issues. I very much enjoyed my time in the last session of Parliament on the justice committee, and while some of the issues have clearly moved on, there was a lot of familiar territory that the committee covered. I wish Audrey Nicholl and her colleagues well in taking forward that work. There is familiar territory. I think that it is fair to say that progress in some areas has been either glacially slow or non-existent. I think that there is a difficulty for the Scottish Government in having built up a bit of a reputation for announcing and retreating, or as Audit Scotland pointed out from time to time, a mismatch between rhetoric and delivery. Nevertheless, I think that it would be unfair to disregard progress that has been made in a number of significant and important areas. I think that in the area of domestic abuse that speakers across the chamber in this debate have acknowledged is a core focus of the work that the Parliament needs to be doing. I think that progress was made there in the last session, particularly in relation to the Domestic Abuse Act in relation to coercive and controlling behaviour. I think that there were also important steps taken forward in terms of the prosecutorial services and the concentration of expertise to ensure that cases that came to the COPFS were dealt with as professionally as possible. I think that that goes some way to explaining the level of convictions that we have seen in recent terms, reflecting not necessarily an upsurge in the number of cases but the ability of our justice system to reflect what was happening in society. That is not to say that there is not more to do. Pauline McNeill and others have talked about the issues in relation to civil legal aid, and I would certainly support efforts to make progress in those areas. The number of debates that we had recently in relation to violence against women and girls has exemplified the amount of work that still needs to be done there and the amount of work that needs to be led by men. Nevertheless, I think that there has been progress made in that area. I would slightly concerned in terms of the relationship to the debate around not proven. I would echo the sentiments on Rona Mackay. I would though, as I did in the previous debate, voice a bit of anxiety about us marching down the route we went before in terms of the abolition of corroboration on vulnerable witnesses. Likewise, I think that we have seen progress made. Again, I think that, while I would want to see the progress stepped up and accelerated in relation to the role that the Barnhouse model in Scotland has made, I think that progress has been made there on electronic monitoring likewise. We avoided the risks in relation to up-tariffing. I think that there is an opportunity to expand that out further and I am interested to see the developments in relation to the diversions on bail and away from incarceration there. I also support Collette Stevenson's call for an end to release from prison on a Friday, given all the problems that arise as a result of that. In relation to presumption against short sentences, something I and others advocated consistently through the last Parliament, I am pleased to see that in place. However, the benefits of that will only be seen with more investment in the community measures but also work alongside the judiciary to give them the confidence that they need in order to refer to those measures. All the evidence shows us that, in the vast majority of cases, it is a far more effective way in reducing rates of re-offending. I think that other areas, as I touched on in my initial contribution through a re-establishment of through-care and purposeful activity within our prisons, are absolutely essential. It is the focus of my amendment and comments made by Maggie Chapman. It is much more in a situation where we are dealing with a prison population that is much higher than anywhere else in Europe. We have to get serious about prison reform. Nobody could argue that Scots are more predisposed genetically to offending behaviour or committing crimes and yet we have a prison population that is out of step with all our European competitors. I thank the member for taking the intervention just to say on his amendment on the proposals that he makes within it that I have a great deal of sympathy with. We cannot support it today because it would jump ahead of where the bail and reform bill is at because I am sure that things like a route map in the milestones that he talks about in relation to through-care will be covered at that time. For that reason only, we are unable to support the amendment even though we are very supportive of the sentiments behind it. I thank the cabinet secretary for that and the sentiments. I am disappointed that the amendment cannot be supported, but I am sure that it will be the subject of further on-going discussions. Let me finish on the issue of funding. There has been quite a bit of debate about that this afternoon. As I have said before, this needs to be up in relation to community sentences in terms of policing. We know that for some time now. Both Police Scotland and laterally the SPA have been making the argument, particularly in relation to capital spend, that it is insufficient at the moment. That amendment and make-do approach is storing up bigger problems. For the future, we have seen a similar approach in terms of legal aid, where I think that further crisis is brewing. I would point again to the threat of legal deserts in places like Orkney that I represent. As well as bringing down the population, we need to see the roll-out of the women's estate and, as Pauline McNeill suggested, in Barlyny as well. On the vision, there is common agreement. We will have our disagreements. It will certainly be a risk to oversimplify the causes of crime but also a risk to oversimplify the remedies. It is a challenge function for us. As Opposition MSPs, I would argue that it is a challenge function incumbent upon the Government's own backbenchers. Let us move away from talk of soft justice and tough justice. We should all be talking about effective justice. I welcome this debate and the strong contributions from all sides of the chamber. I warmly welcome the Government's motion before us today. I have not had the chance to read in detail all the documents that have been published today, but I welcome the direction of travel outlined in a new vision for justice. It shows how far we have come that there is a consensus that services should be person-centred and trauma-informed, with a focus on prevention, early intervention and making communities safer. It is, however, important to debate the gap that is sometimes between the policy that is set out and the aspirations set out by the Government and the reality on the ground, which has been referred to in a number of the contributions that members have made today. It would be interesting to hear from the Government as to why it has not always been possible in the past to deliver on the kinds of changes outlined in previous policy documents and what the pressures and resistances to change. I think that that is helpful for this Parliament in determining how we ensure that we get delivery of what we discuss in this chamber. It is clearly a matter of consensus that the pandemic has exacerbated long-standing problems but that the justice system needs significant reform. I believe that some of the practices that have been developed during the pandemic, such as the use of virtual courts, may help to bring about some of the changes that are needed. We will no doubt be debating that in a great deal of detail over the coming months. Many of the challenges in the legal system are clearly as a result of underfunding, but they are also a result of changes in society, an increase in the reporting of certain types of crimes such as sexual offences, which include large numbers of historic cases, and a failure sometimes to deliver, as I have said, on Government policy. Currently, 27 per cent of the prison population in Scotland is on remand, one of the highest figures in Scotland. The use of remand in Scotland is historically high. It compares unfavourably with other countries. In England, at the moment, it is 15 per cent, in Spain it is 16 per cent and in Germany it is 20 per cent. Liam McArthur has already spoken in some detail about the high levels overall of the use of prison in Scotland. That is a significant challenge and a cultural issue that we need to address. Historically, we have so many people in jail in Scotland where, in other countries, they would be dealt with in another way. It is very difficult in particular to justify why such large numbers of people in custody are there for offences that they have not yet been convicted on and may never be convicted for. In many cases, they will either be acquitted or will get a non-custodial sentence at the end of that period in remand. Those are long-term challenges. We have a crisis at the moment in terms of the number of people on remand, but we have to understand that judges feel that they have little option but to remand in certain situations, given the pressures on them and the fear that they accuse will not attend court. The fact that remand is used to such a great extent is causing massive problems in an ageing, overcrowded and ill-equipped prison service. The huge number of people in prison in Scotland is an issue that needs to be addressed. I do not think that it is a simple issue and I am not suggesting that it is an easy challenge but something that the Scottish Government and all of us need to grapple with. There are situations clearly where prison is the only option but, as the cabinet secretary has already said, community-based disposals are often highly effective and more effective than prison sentences and are often better at preventing re-offending. Another significant concern is the number of women who are in prison in Scotland. Again, that has risen in recent decades despite a political consensus that prison is often the wrong disposal for women offenders. Scotland has one of the highest female prison populations in northern Europe, with usually about 400 women in prison, including about 315 sentence prisoners and 85 women on remand. It is estimated that about 65 per cent of those women are mothers. New community justice legislation was enacted in 2016. I was not an MSP at that time, so I was not involved in the debates around that legislation. That legislation was one of the actions that this Parliament has taken to try to shift sentences from prison to community service and other forms of community-based disposal. However, the proportion that received a community sentence fell from 59 per cent in 2016-7 to 55 per cent in 2018-19 before rising back to the original 59 per cent in 2019-20. It would be interesting to look at previous initiatives that the Government has taken that have been attempting to deal with some of the challenges that we face with this large prison population as to why they have not been as effective as this Parliament would have hoped them to be. That clearly is a debate that raises very serious challenges for all of us. I look forward to what the Government says in response to what members have said. Labour will support the Government motion and the Liberal Democrat amendment when it comes to division. Justice is a subject close to my heart. Not only did I spend many years reporting on some of the most extreme and appalling crimes in Scotland, I have also been the victim of a targeted violent attack on my own doorstep. I believe my journalistic experience and that horrific attack gave me useful insight into Scotland's criminal justice system. This is further enhanced by representing crime victims as an MSP and being married to a front-line police officer who serves as a daily reminder about the reality and the dangers of what happens in our streets. Earlier in the debate, the Minister was attempting to engage me in a private conversation about police numbers. There is lots of spin and claim and counter-claim, but it is worth putting on the record, as my colleague Sharon Dowey did earlier, that police numbers are at their lowest since 2009. My colleague Jamie Greene has very eloquently articulated many of my party's concerns about the SNP Government motion, which is before us today. I agree with his observations about how this Government talks a good game about justice and about victims, but how those lofty words are rarely matched by meaningful actions. Last night, I read the Scottish Government's newly published and grandly titled, The Vision for Justice in Scotland upon which this debate is based. It certainly looks the part. There's the RT abstract cover containing a saltire, of course. It's packed with statistics and graphics. I'll quickly read this brief excerpt. Achieving our vision requires a fundamental change. Iterative reforms and changes to our existing structures and processes will not take us far enough on the journey. We must transform our justice services, ensuring that services are designed for and by those who need them. Our justice services will be for you with you at heart. I mean, seriously. Come on, who writes this stuff? It sounds like the marketing spiel of a tenerife timeshare salesman. Now, while I often disagree with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice, I don't think he's guilty of this particular crime of jargon. Presiding Officer, one of the most striking aspects of this document is the blurring of lines between criminals and their victims. No distinction is made between those who fall victim to crime and those who perpetrate it. They are all lumped together as equal participants in the justice system. Since becoming an MSP, I've begun to appreciate how dominant this thinking has become. A lobby of middle-class professionals would have us believe that all thugs, thieves, sex offenders and other crooks are simply misunderstood. In their world, criminals are victims, and victims are of little interest. They believe that every criminal is a by-product of life experience, which is some truth but only up to a point. Personal responsibility seems like an alien concept. This attitude risks making excuses for criminal behaviour and is offensive to those who did not get a good start in life. The report states that people are experts in their own lives and that people will be treated with empathy and kindness and provided with the support that they need to thrive. You wouldn't know it, but the people who are talking about here are criminals who inflict misery and fear in our communities. I'm all for rehabilitation, but has the balance shifted too far? In 36 pages, the word criminals does not feature once. In 36 pages, there is one reference to punishment. In 36 pages, there is not a single mention of organised crime. Not one. We know that Scotland is infested by more than 100 high-level criminal gangs, most of which are based in the region that I represent. Most have access to firearms, most fuel and drugs, many deal in the trafficking of broken and desperate people. An estimated 2,500 criminals flood our streets with their pills and powders. Their dirty money is laundered through front businesses, creating a vast parallel economy. An organised crime terror campaign last year forced a politician to flee his home and quit his job. Let's also remember that in 2020 a record 1,339 Scots were killed by drugs, yet those parasitical gangs do not merit a single mention in this document. It's called a vision for justice, but it's in fact completely blind to the misery caused by crime. Another historic blind spot in the Scottish justice system has been the scandalous failing of victims of gender-based violence. 11 years ago, Denise Clair was raped by two men. She has never received a satisfactory explanation for why they were not prosecuted. Frankly, the case stinks. With immense bravery and determination, Denise waved her anonymity and was forced to seek justice in the civil courts. As Pauline McNeill said and Rona Mackay said, since then at least two other rape victims, A, B and Miss M, have had to take the same DIY route. I commend each of them. Despite all the SNP rhetoric, all the hand wringing and all the weighty reports like this one, victims of rape are still being betrayed every single day. For almost 15 years this Government has been in charge of our justice system. It's spent over a decade talking about the not proven verdict, which is used disproportionately in rape cases, but like so much else, this Government lacks the gumption to take action. My party has put forward proposals for a victims bill, which would truly put victims at the heart of the justice system. It would scrap not proven and tell all crime victims, such as Denise, why their cases had been dropped. I see the Scottish Government does not intend to introduce any dedicated victims bill according to this document, so I hope it will back ours instead, but that is for another day. Jamie Greene's amendment is common sense. I am confident that most people across Scotland would agree and therefore wholeheartedly urge members to support it today. As much as we agree with much of the Labour and Lib Dem amendments, we cannot support them as they are simply additions to and not amendments of the Scottish Government motion, which we do not support. I now call on Ash Regan Minister to wind up for the Scottish Government. Today was an opportunity to get up to that sort of strategic level and to debate the very future direction of justice in Scotland. After all, our choice of direction reflects us. It reveals us, who we are as a society, what we believe in, what we value. Labour and the Liberal Democrats engaged constructively with that discussion. The Conservatives, however, I am probably quite predictably passed up on that opportunity. That reveals the Conservative lack of engagement with the substance of the debate that we are trying to have in this Parliament about the future of justice. I think that Liam McArthur summed it up when he was talking about the Conservatives and saying that they just weren't making a contribution to the debate. Here is my amendment. It is quite lengthy. There is a lot of substance in there. Which bit of it do you disagree with then? Which bit of it that says that we should vote victims at the heart of the justice system do you disagree with? I do not disagree with that at all. We absolutely want to have victims at the part of our justice system and we are making immense contribution to making that so in all the work that we are doing. If you read the justice vision, you will see that it comes through that document the whole way through. It is a really integral part of it. I do not accept the Conservative suggestion that this Government's focus on rehabilitation and shifting that balance towards greater use of community-based justice poses a risk to safety, as was previously mentioned. Because victim safety and public protection has always been and will always be at the heart of any policy that this Government implements. I think that if you take a step back and you think about this, if you want to make a transformational change and I think that there is support for that here today from what I am hearing, then we have got to move towards a smart justice approach that is compassionate justice and that is based on evidence-based approaches which we know work to reduce re-offending because that is the way that we are going to address these issues. With a few exceptions, it was a useful debate. I think that there were some good speeches. I would note Collette Stevenson's contribution particularly on things to do with the police who was useful. Audrey Nicholl, her metaphor about the falling off the cliff and the ambulance I think has stayed with me and also Rona Mackay and her emphasis on women's justice. I will address as much as I can in the time that I have, Presiding Officer, that was raised in the debate. Pauline McNeill raised issues around access to justice and rape convictions and that has been a focus of some other contributions. She mentioned the testimony of many survivors and campaigners such as Ms M. I have also met Ms M and listened carefully to what she had to say and I think that she is very compelling in pursuing the goal that she is pursuing there. The Government is very committed to driving progress in this area, so I will reiterate that for the chamber. I will probably be answering what Pauline McNeill has asked. We have reforms planned in a number of areas, including the management of sexual offences. We have Lady Dorian's review suggesting a number of proposals for modernisation and we are moving forward with those. Does that answer Pauline McNeill's question? Since you have heard the testimony of women seeing the felt like criminals as victims, I wonder if the Government has given thought to what is the best form within the system to address that question. The victims commissioner, is that the answer? I am not convinced, but I wonder if the Government has given some further thought to how we deal with that point. I will give some further thought and I will come back to the member on that. On remand, that was an issue that was rightly mentioned by a number of speakers, Jamie Greene, Pauline McNeill and Liam McArthur, among others. We do recognise that this is an area where change is urgently needed. We have consulted on reforms there and we intend to bring forward legislation in this area before summer recess. We have also increased funding for alternatives. Pauline McNeill and Liam McArthur have asked about electronic monitoring. We plan to extend the availability of this over the coming months, so it would then be used as part of bail conditions, as part of a community payback order and as part of conditions for temporary release from prison. Speeches such as Rona Mackay spoke particularly about the importance of improving women's experience of justice. I think that that is really important. The Government is committed to taking action to address that. I am determined that, in my role, I will strive to drive forward as much action on that as possible. The time to act is now, so I am pleased to be leading new work to develop a strategic approach to women in the justice system. Last month I held the first meeting of the women's justice leadership panel. The panel has brought together expert women from all aspects of the justice system to discuss the experience and unique needs of women and what that means for the criminal justice process. We know that the system has not often been designed with women in mind, and the panel is tasked with examining that further. It builds on a call for evidence that the Scottish Government commissioned at the end of last year. The evidence from that call found that women were more likely to experience victimisation and trauma, hold primary care responsibilities and were more likely to carry the weight of others' imprisonment. It also raised key areas of interest, such as the lag between policy and practice, the blurred line between victimisation and offender status, stereotypes and biases within the justice system and intersectionality among others. The work will be dedicated to exploring those themes in more detail, creating a better understanding of the impacts on women and building the case for fundamental system change to better reflect those needs. Outputs from the panel will inform and complement the work that is being progressed under our justice vision. I will just move on briefly to legal aid. I would refute Jamie Greene's characterisation in this area of the Government's action here. We are of course bringing forward a bill on legal aid to create a system that is flexible, easy to access and meets the needs of those who use it, which I think is really important. I engage with representatives of the profession regularly to listen to all the concerns that are raised, and the latest legal aid, 5 per cent fee rise, will be in place shortly. In conclusion, setting out a vision is beneficial, because we need to know what our aspirations are, what our goals are and where we are trying to go as a country and why. Moving forward as a country on some of the key issues within justice is bold. Incremental changes can be good, but I think that the time is right. I believe that we have heard from Parliament today that there is support in Parliament for transformation, support for boldness in how we look again at some of our key challenges and how we go about addressing them. Our vision for the justice system is for more effective justice, a justice system that is trauma informed and a justice system that is person centred. I call on Stuart McMillan, convener of the committee, to make the announcement. In November, I spoke in the chamber to highlight the Delegated Pills and Law Reform Committee's inquiry into the use of the made-affirmative procedure during the coronavirus pandemic. The committee today finalised its report, which will be published this week. As members know, many of the public health measures used to try and protect the people of Scotland from the full impact of the coronavirus have been made using secondary legislation. The majority of those measures have been brought into law using the made-affirmative procedure. This allows the Scottish Government to bring changes into force immediately. While the chamber needs to approve the changes within 28 days for the regulations to stay in force, the law will often have been altered weeks earlier. Prior to the pandemic, the made-affirmative procedure for laying SSIs was relatively rare, with perhaps around one a year. Since March 2020, we have considered more than 140. As I said in November, the committee has recognised that the use of the procedure has allowed the Government to respond quickly to challenges presented by the coronavirus. However, the purpose of the inquiry was to ensure that there is an appropriate balance between flexibility for the Government in responding to an emergency situation, while still ensuring appropriate parliamentary scrutiny and oversight. Although I cannot yet go into specific details of the committee's report, the recommendations will help to form the basis of the committee's and, indeed, I hope that the Parliament's future scrutiny of both the made-affirmative instruments and the proposed primary legislation, which includes such powers. That will help to ensure that the made-affirmative procedure continues to be used appropriately and only when necessary. The report will be published on Thursday, and there will be an opportunity for all members to discuss its recommendations in our committee debate on Tuesday 22 February. I look forward to hearing from colleagues then. I am minded to accept a motion without notice under rule 11.2.4 of standing orders that decision time be brought forward to now, and I invite the Minister for Parliamentary Business to move the motion. The question is that decision time be brought forward to now, are we all agreed? There are four questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first is the amendment 3098.3, in the name of Jamie Greene, which seeks to amend motion 3098, in the name of Keith Brown, on a new vision for justice be agreed. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed, therefore we will move to a vote and there will be a short suspension until I allow members to access the digital voting system.