 The next item of business is a statement by Angela Constance on Scotland's prison population. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of her statement and so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on the cabinet secretary up to 10 minutes. Over the course of this year, the prison population has risen from around 600 from 7,303 to yesterday 7,937. That is an increase of around 9 per cent. That represents a significant challenge and further increases will seriously impact on those that work in our prisons and on the prison population itself. Scotland is not unique in this challenge. There are increases in England and Wales of similar proportions. As I made clear in my letter to the criminal justice committee two weeks ago, this acute pressure is a great cause of concern and is one that I am taking action on. As I also made clear, the Scottish Government is not changing its position on the use of prisons. They are necessary in society to punish, to protect and to rehabilitate and reduce re-offending. Therefore, our independent courts must continue to have the ability to remove an individual's liberty when appropriate. Protecting victims and the public from harm is my absolute priority. Whether custody or a community-based alternative is used, ultimately the goal is the same. Less crime, fewer victims and safer communities. Crime has reduced and a number of people entering prison each year has fallen substantially. So why does the prison population level not match those changes? We must consider the reasons behind this and also what the evidence shows us in the effectiveness of prison and alternative sentencing. We know that community sentencing leads to safer communities as they are more effective at reducing re-offending than short-term custodial sentencing. That is why we have protected investment in community-based interventions and are providing a total of £134 million to support community justice services this year. Yet, although the number of individuals on community sentences has increased, so has the number of people in prison. Yesterday, we had 312 people serving sentences of six months or less. Recognising the independence of our courts, we must consider the reasons for this and work on increasing confidence and alternative sentencing, particularly in community justice. Since January of this year, there has been a 19 per cent rise in sentences of under four years. This is one of the reasons for the rising prison population. The other is remand. Although the post-pandemic court recovery programme is doing its job in clearing the backlog, there has been an unanticipated increase in the remand population, which has now reached a historic high, particularly with women. Another reason for the increase in prison population is the substantial change in the individuals who are in prison. In the past decade, prisons have become increasingly populated by individuals convicted of violent and sexual offences and those serving longer sentences. The average length of prison sentences has increased by 14 per cent over that period. That also shows the success of other areas of our justice system in improvements in the clear-up rates and increased reporting and investigation of crimes such as sexual offending. The age profile of the prison population has also changed. The longer term reduction in individuals spending time in custody each year has been driven almost entirely by a reduction in young people and those aged under 30. The prison population is mirroring our own society in terms of demographics. Over the last 10 years, the average daily population of male prisoners aged over 50 has nearly doubled from 647 to 1,201. That brings its own challenges to the Scottish Prison Service. As SPS sees the welcome reduction in young people, they are also seen an increase in the need to contract for social care for an ageing prison population. There is an issue that I have spoken to SPS officers about on my many visits to the majority of Scotland's prisons in the six months since I became Justice Cabinet Secretary. These are the reasons for a changing and increasing prison population. I want to address the actions that we have already taken and the further action that we will need to take. We took action when it became clear that the GOAME contract was not working as it should be and was causing disruption for court efficiency and for the Scottish Prison Service. We did that by providing SPS with additional flexibility to work with GOAME to support improved staff, recruitment and retention to improve the issue. I am grateful to justice partners for working with SPS to find solutions and for implementing practical changes that reduce the demands on GOAME. To decrease the use of custody in appropriate cases in favour of more effective community-based alternatives, we have extended the presumption against short sentences from three to twelve months. That supports people to have a stable life, including staying and employment. To address the remand population, we have introduced electronic monitoring on bail and have invested £3.2 million this year to support bail assessment and bail supervision services as a direct alternative to remand. That has now supported the establishment of bail supervision services in 30 local authorities with the final two to be established by the end of the year. Since we introduced electronically monitored bail in May 2022, over 1,200 electronic monitoring bail orders have been granted and around 375 individuals are currently being monitored. The 25 per cent increase in the use of electronic monitoring since last year is driven by bail and other court orders. Future development of the service will include exploring the use of GPS technology, which could change how people are monitored and support decision making with individuals, for example on home detention curfew. The bail and release from custody act seeks to refocus remand so it is reserved for those who pose a risk of public safety or the delivery of justice. It enables courts when passing sentence to take into account the time and accused spend on electronically monitored bail in a comparable way as they can do with time spent on remand. We are aiming to commence those provisions by the end of this year as a further tool for the independent judiciary to have when sentencing. In addition, investment in community justice is a key strand to a longer term solution to this issue. We need to improve confidence in appropriate alternatives to imprisonment because we know they are effective and support people from reoffending. We are therefore urgently planning increased support for people on alternatives to remand with a particular focus on mentoring and one-to-one support. We are also supporting the Scottish Prison Service and the actions that it is taking to respond to the increase in the number of people in their care, which include considering what can be done within the existing prison estate to safely accommodate additional prisoners and making further improvements to progression to the open estate and our two new community custody units to help prisoners to better prepare for their eventual release and return to our community. We also remain committed to modernising and improving the prison estate to ensure that it is fit for purpose and supports the rehabilitation of offenders. We have provided an extra £29 million this year to support SPS to deliver a stable and secure prison system on top of the £97 million in capital funding to continue the modernisation of the prison estate to better meet the needs of staff and prisoners. Although we are taking action to deal with the immediate issue in front of us, I am determined to also develop longer-lasting solutions that are robust and continue to put public safety and victims first. We have therefore established the Prison Population Leadership Group, comprising of senior representatives from the justice sector and beyond to identify both long and short-term options to address the challenges and ensure a collective response. I want a justice system that will take a whole systems approach using multi-agency partnership and have a clear focus on early and effective intervention, diversion and rehabilitative support. Prisons contain some of society's most vulnerable individuals around a quarter of the prison population have been in care and just half are from our most deprived communities. To bring about a reduction in the prison population as a society, we must work together to address the underlying causes for much of that offending, including tackling poverty inequality and substance misuse, as well as wider work to grow the economy and improve educational standards and reduce health inequalities. We must always ensure that we put victims at the heart of our decision making. Let me finish by paying tribute to all those who work in our prisons, SPS staff, NHS staff, social workers, educators, chaplins and many others. I have seen firsthand the extraordinary work that they do. I know that those working in our prisons, particularly SPS staff, are working diligently to respond to the pressures caused by the rising prison population. I very much want to hear from this chamber on their views today and also from justice spokespeople who I will meet tomorrow. I believe that this situation requires cross-public sector and cross-party collaboration to address the situation. Scotland has demonstrated in the past the ability to achieve significant justice reforms and we now need to rise to the challenge of a rising prison population to deliver on our ambitions for a just, safe and resilient Scotland. The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions after which we will move on to the next item of business and I would be grateful if members who wish to put a question were to press their request to speak buttons now. I call Russell Finlay. I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of today's statement and I however find it astonishing that it contains not a single mention of the impact of drugs on the prison population. Prison officers deal with violent and volatile prisoners who are under the influence of highly dangerous psychoactive substances yet the SNP government diddard while jails were flooded with drug-soaked mail causing mass overdoses, some fatal. The BBC has today reported that drones are increasingly being used to smuggle contraband including weapons. Staff are being terrorised by organised crime gangs with at least 10 firebombings of vehicles. A senior prison officer association official who is also an SNP councillor says that threats and intimidation are at the worst he's seen in 30 years. This is all relevant to the prison population. The SNP have allowed drugs to spiral out of control. Those who leave prison in the grip of addiction will almost certainly find their way back inside. We know that the SNP cannot seek to undermine judicial independence by freeing dangerous criminals who are behind bars for good reason. So if they are really intent on reducing prisoner numbers, do they accept that tackling this drugs epidemic is of critical importance? Mr Finlay is correct to raise the impact of drugs and the harsh reality of a rising prison population is that it makes many issues that the prison service heroically tries to tackle. It makes their job day in, day out all the more harder. What we know about drugs and prisons is that the scale of the challenge often reflects what is in the community. When the prison service closed down one route, they need to be very swift and alert, because invariably another route opens up. That is an on-going challenge. They work very closely with Police Scotland. I am not going to go into an awful lot of detail in and around the more covert intelligence or security measures, but I am happy to have a further discussion with Mr Finlay about that. I also emphasise that the Scottish Prison Service and the Government take the welfare and safety of prison officers and staff with the utmost seriousness, because we know that as a result of the criminal justice system doing what it should be doing, there are more people from a serious organised crime background. Again, there are measures that the Scottish Prison Service takes day in, day out to ensure the welfare and safety of their staff. It is important to remember that over and above disrupting the supply of drugs into our prisons that we need to be focused on treatment and we need to be focused on recovery. I was very pleased to see that very recently that His Majesty's Inspectorate for Prisons in her annual report paid tribute to the recovery work that is now on-going in our prisons. I thank the cabinet secretary for the update on the increasing prison population. I know what she says regarding the extension of the presumption against short sentences and indeed the ageing prison population. Does she believe that the prison population will continue to rise due to court backlogs and the increasing number of convictions for sexual offences? Will she share with us the projections that she has for future prison numbers and will she confirm that there will be no further delay to the modernisation of the prison estate, including at HMP Glasgow, Highlands and the commencement of work at Greenock? The cabinet secretary is again quite correct to point to the issues in and around short sentences and the ageing population within our prison estate. In terms of the projections that were published over the summer months, there will be further projections published in November. I felt that it was imperative, given the seriousness of the issue, that requires serious scrutiny and a serious, sober debate about the future and the way forward to share as much information with the committee and Parliament as possible. Yes, the success that we have had with the court backlog is indeed adding to the prison population, but what was not anticipated is that the Raman population would fall as the sentence population increased and that has not happened. Yes, we are utterly committed to the replacement of HMP Barlinnie with the new HMP Glasgow and, indeed, over the summer I visited HMP Inverness to discuss their plans in and around HMP Highland. For brevity, the member and I have corresponded a lot around HMP Greenock, which I also had the pleasure of visiting over the summer. I have no doubt that we will continue to do that. What more can the Scottish Government do to harness technology to increase the use of electronic monitoring, particularly as an alternative to Raman and short jail sentences? Electronic monitoring is a tried and tested feature of Scotland's justice system and a key tool to support moving on from prison or as an alternative to a custodial sentence. It supports reintegration and also allows for swift responses from Police Scotland and other justice partners where any conditions are breached. The member will know that we introduced electronic monitoring of bail last May and that this option has become more widely used. We are, of course, exploring GPS with partners and we are looking at whether this may offer options around other forms of release that are currently available. However, some of the work in and around electronic monitoring because it requires the development of further technology or, indeed, the support mechanisms underpinning it is not necessarily a short term measure, but it is certainly one for the short to medium term. The recent rise in Scotland's prison population is due to more criminals being sentenced for more serious crimes. That is despite the SNP Government and others doing their best to empty Scotland's prisons through the presumption against short prison sentences that under 25 sentencing guidelines and diverting criminals from prosecution. Does this not confirm that the SNP's policies have removed the deterrent to commit crime and allowed serious offending to spiral out of control? The member is half right when she says that there are more serious offenders spending longer in prison and that, indeed, indicates the effectiveness of our justice system. However, there is nothing soft about heaven, one of the highest prison populations in Europe, and nor is that smart justice. As I have indicated in great detail both in my letter to the Justice Committee and I hope that the member had an opportunity to read that, and in my statement today is that we are not just seeing a rise in the long term serious organised crime or sexual offending prisoners. We are seeing an increase in remand, which is at historic high. That, of course, is untried prisoners. As I have intimated in my statement, we have over 300 people as of today in our system spending less than six months in prison. In some cases, that might be entirely appropriate. Our judiciary are, of course, independent, but we must rise to the challenge of providing more, and I am determined to do that, to ensuring that we have more effective, more visible community disposals that make our communities safer and increase the confidence in and around that work. The cabinet secretary will be aware that Barlinny prison in Scotland's largest lies in my Glasgow province constituency. In my conversations with those who engage regularly with the prison population express concern that, in their words, many prisoners probably shouldn't be there and that treatment for addiction, health or other root causes would be a more effective use of the significant public funds currently spent on incarceration. Can I ask the cabinet secretary what re-offending rate data she has and whether the data shows that more successful outcomes in terms of lower re-offending rates are achieved by non-custodial as opposed to custodial sentences? I will always stress that prison is necessary for those who pose a risk of serious harm. However, it is important to recognise that the reconviction rate for individuals who are given a community payback order is consistently lower than those given short sentences. With the latest statistics showing a reconviction rate of 25 per cent for those on a community payback order, that nearly doubles for those given a custodial sentence of one year or less to 47 per cent. It is clear that people in custody often present with higher levels of risk and vulnerability than the general population as a whole, often given very complex health needs, including mental health issues and a history of being looked after. We are working with our key partners to improve the health and wellbeing of those in our care in prisons. I am determined that we will indeed have safe, effective and person-centred care. Of course, there is our national mission on drugs to improve the lives of those impacted by drugs, and that is for those in the community but also for those who are in prison. Thank you, Presiding Officer. When we are seeing a welcome investment into the estate in Stirland and also the opening of Bella Centre and Dundee in other centres, we are seeing a worrying increase in the number of women who have been held on remand. Could the Cabinet Secretary expand on what she thinks the reasons for this are and how we are going to address it? The reasons for women being held on remand are complex. Part of the bail and release bill that was passed before recess will gather more data in and around this. If I look at the statistics this week on the prison population, 28-29 per cent of the male population are on remand, whereas women this week are 34 per cent. Some weeks are as high as 37 per cent. We have achieved much in terms of improving the women's estate and also in terms of moving forward with those trauma-informed approaches. I am determined that we will do more for all groups of prisoners, particularly women, in terms of community alternatives. The reasons are complex. They are ultimately matters for the court, but we are committed to robust alternatives to manage those higher levels of risk and vulnerability and to furnish more data-driven evidence on that. Fulton MacGregor, to be followed by Liam McArthur. As the cabinet secretary, if she has considered any measures introduced in England, there would be appropriate options for Scotland. For example, I understand that, since March, sentences and guidance on the relevance of prison overcrowding should be taken into account for shorter sentences. Can I also ask her what impact she believes the strategy for community justice is having in reducing the prison population and re-offending? What we know is that the strategy for community justice and underpinning delivery plan is having an impact. We are seeing more people taking part in community justice disposals, but we are also seeing more people in prison, in terms of our daily prison population. In terms of other measures elsewhere in the UK, it is important to stress to chamber that there is a four nations UK-wide dialogue on this. We do want to share information about our shared challenges and look at the different solutions, the different jurisdictions, whether that is in the UK or elsewhere in Europe that are being deployed. I can confirm that we have no plans to use police cells, for example, as additional capacity for prisons. Before taking any such step, I would have to carefully consider the practical and feasible impact of that. Part of the purpose of bringing together the prison population leadership group is to really focus, because we have been here before, as a Government and a Parliament and a country, with very significant rises in our prison population. We need to not consider any measure in isolation, but we really need to expand on that whole systems approach and get the right solutions for now but also for the future. I call Liam McArthur to be followed by Ruth McGuire. The cabinet secretary is right that the shockingly high numbers in Scotland's prisons, the reasons for that are complex but they are not new and the inspectorate has been a warning of the implications for some decades now. Recent data suggested that in the adult male prison estate every prison is at or over capacity, with the exception of Castle Huntley, SPS's low security open estate prison, which is operating at half capacity. The prison inspectorate has highlighted the institution as inspiring and a flagship establishment but one that is severely underutilised. What can the cabinet secretary do to ensure that that institution is better utilised to improve rehabilitation and ease some of the strain across the prison estate? Mr McArthur is quite correct to point to the recent report and indeed previous reports by the prison inspectorate, because while she praises the good work that has been done, she also sets a clarion call around our collective response and that we need to have a strategy of tackling numbers beyond capacity. To use the successes that we have had in tackling the previously high numbers of women in custody and young people in custody to learn from that and to apply some of that learning into the male estate. In terms of the over capacity of prisons, 10 out of those 17 establishments are facing that and that is a matter of public record that I think I put on public record in response to a question from Mr McArthur. The issue here is we need to tackle remand so we need to address the historic high levels of remand and that will in course help us to address some of the issues in and around progression. There are other actions we will need to take to ensure better progression because you are absolutely correct. Those world leading excellent facilities, whether it is the community custodial units for women or indeed Castle Huntley, we need to be maximising the use of those facilities. I am keen to get in all members who have pressed to put a question, so I would be grateful if we could pick up the pace. I call Ruth Maguire to be followed by Maggie Chapman. Jail is absolutely the place where many offenders should be. However, when it comes to short prison sentences, we know that family relationships, housing and work are all affected and that this can increase the risk of re-offending. What is the Scottish Government doing to encourage more community justice sentencing to help people to sustain their family relationships and employment? We know that community-based interventions and sentences, rather than short-term custodial sentences, can help to ensure that justice is served and be more effective in reducing re-offending and assisting with rehabilitation, leading to fewer victims and safer communities. That is why we extended the presumption against short-term sentences and why we continue to invest and have protected the community justice services budget. I am determined to do more to bolster capacity in community justice and strengthen alternatives to remand. I can also look at other potential actions in and around wider use of structured defer sentences, the investment and services that underpins that. As I have said to other members, I am actively exploring ways to invest more and do more with regard to community justice. I thank the cabinet secretary for her statement, which highlights just how important it is to ensure that community justice strategy works and does actually reduce the prison population and re-offending. Can she outline what more we can do to implement the actions in that strategy, specifically how we can ensure vulnerable people such as those who are themselves victims and survivors, those with poor mental health or with addiction issues, are not unnecessarily incarcerated and criminalised but supported through community and or restorative justice options? There are a range of community sentences and other interventions available to decision makers in our justice system, whether that is an alternative to custody. I am also open to further improvements that could encourage that more widespread use of community sentences and other interventions. The national strategy for community justice, along with the delivery plan, sets out a range of actions to improve the delivery and effectiveness of community justice. Our current work includes ensuring the availability of bail supervision services and increasing the knowledge and awareness of other interventions such as restorative justice. We also remain committed to developing restorative justice services that are safe, consistent and of a high standard nationally, while delivering a service that is person-centred, reflecting local needs and circumstances. The cabinet secretary said in her statement that around a quarter of the prison population has been in care and just under half are from our most deprived communities. In other words, some very vulnerable individuals. Is this inevitable or does she think that this can be changed? I think that it should be changed. I do not think that we should ever throw in the towel and think that anything is inevitable. This is about first and foremost the safety of our communities. If we have the courage to engage in that debate to improve community safety, we have to improve reintegration and rehabilitation. I would point the member to the success that we have had in drastically decreasing the numbers of young people in, for example, HMP Pullment. That is a good example of where we had the courage and the consistency to take a whole systems approach and it has achieved better outcomes for young people and for communities. We now need to scale that up and do it with a much larger, more complex population. I call Annie Wells to be followed by Stephen Kerr. Thank you, Presiding Officer. If judges decide more criminals need to go to prison, then that is where they should be. Yet this SNP Government has failed to build replacement prisons to facilitate this rise in violent and sexual offenders. Barlinnie's replacement has reportedly quadrupled in cost and is likely to be a year late. Can the cabinet secretary confirm that Barlinnie's replacement will be built on time and can she also confirm whether the proposed capacity of the prison could fit Barlinnie's current population? Let me just be crystal clear. You do not have to be an economist or a master builder to know the impact and the severe constraints that the construction industry is under in terms of labour costs, the supply of labour as a result of Brexit or indeed that the price of concrete has went up by 87 per cent. Never mind that the cost of steel. What I am on record is saying, and I am absolutely committed to a replacement for HMP Barlinnie for that new HMP Glasgow, which will of course be developed with the best of practice in mind, that once the design plans are finalised we will have a much better accurate estimate both of costs and timescales, but it is a journey that we are determined to pursue. It was the cabinet secretary that mentioned the phrase throwing in the towel, so let's talk about community payback orders because it's typical of the SNP's soft touch approach to justice that ministers have a track record of discounting the hours, the backlogged hours of unpaid work. At the end of 2022 there were 700,000 hours of backlog unpaid work, so what is the backlog now and what will the cabinet secretary do about it? It is important to recognise the dedication and the importance of the work of community justice service staff, including justice social work services. The work that they do is incredibly important in the same way as the work of those working within our prisons. It is also important to recognise that community payback orders have a 74 per cent completion rate. I have already said on a number of occasions that the reconviction rate of community disposals in comparison to short-term sentences is much lower. So let's dump the rhetoric on soft justice, let's focus on substance and let's focus collectively, I hope, on smart justice and I will of course write to the member.