 The next item of business is a statement by Michael Matheson on community justice in Scotland. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of his statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Michael Matheson. Cabinet secretary, 15 minutes are there abouts, please. Presiding Officer, in the summer, I launched this Government's vision and priorities for justice in Scotland, which laid out our intention to adopt a more progressive evidence-based approach supported by partners across the justice sector and beyond. That approach underpins our determination to ensure that we live in safe, cohesive and resilient communities. In the programme for government that was published last week, we pledged to extend the presumption against short sentences to 12 months. That announcement was welcomed by former justice secretaries across the political spectrum who recognise that the time has come to adopt a more progressive and transformative perspective. It is a commitment consistent with the drive to create a more progressive evidence-based justice system. This very week marks the 20th anniversary of the devolution referendum. In the intervening years, this Parliament has done great things. Members across the chamber can feel really proud of its achievements. The one area in which we have made little progress is that of penal reform. In 1999-2000, the average daily prison population across Scotland's prisons was less than 6,000. During 2015-16, that figure was more than 7,600. That means that since the inception of the Parliament, we have witnessed an increase of nearly 30 per cent in the number of people that are locked up on any given day. We know that short prison sentences do little to rehabilitate people or to reduce the likelihood of their re-offending. We know that short term imprisonment, the shrubs families and communities and adversely affects employment opportunities and stable housing—the very things that evidence shows support assistance from offending. We know that this is a poor use of public resources and a waste of human potential. There will always be cases in which the courts rightly take the view that a prison sentence is absolutely justified. For those individuals who end up in custody, we need to think beyond just bricks and mortar. That change is part of the rationale behind our plans for the female custodial estate. In July, I witnessed the start of demolition work on Conton Vale prison. The Scottish Prison Service has now commenced the planning and public consultation process for the creation of its replacement. Although it is located on the existing site of Conton Vale, it will provide an entirely new approach for custodial care of around 80 women. The new facility will run using therapeutic community principles and will incorporate gender-specific and trauma-informed practice, addressing the particular needs of the female prison population. For women who do not require the level of security or intensive intervention provided by the national facility, we will provide community custodial units. In July, I announced that the first two units would be located in Glasgow and either Fife or Dundee. I can today inform Parliament that the Scottish Prison Service has acquired a site in Maryhill for the first unit in Glasgow and that the second will be in Dundee. Those new community units will assist women to maintain their links with their family and accommodate them close to both their communities and the agencies that can ensure that they are able to move away from offending. Work in those units will respond to the changing profile of the female prison population and the risk profile of women in custody. The Scottish Prison Service plans that those first two units and the national facility will be opened by the end of 2020. That work is part of wider transformation within our prisons, professionalising the role of prison officers, ensuring a focus on rehabilitation and supporting the reintegration of people leaving custody. Those developments are encouraging, but I would still like to see our criminal justice system have a stronger emphasis on robust community sentences that focus on a addressing the causes of offending behaviour. In the 2008 report of the Scottish Prisons Commission, Henry McLeish wrote that, in order to better target imprisonment and to make it more effective, it should be reserved for, and I quote, people whose offences are so serious that no other form of punishment will do and for those who pose a threat of serious harm to the public. That aim will be described as a necessary touchstone of a society that wants to break with the idea that the only real punishment is prison. If we truly want to hold ourselves up as a modern and progressive nation, then I believe that that is the foundation that our community justice system needs to build on. The First Minister has made clear her ambition to build an inclusive and socially just Scotland. Her justice system has a crucial role to play in shaping that future and in helping to tackle social inequality. A just, equitable and inclusive society is one that needs to be supported by a progressive evidence-based justice system. A system that works across communities to reduce and ultimately to prevent further offending. A system that holds individuals to account for their offending but which ultimately supports them to make positive contributions to our communities. Over the past decade, this Government has taken steps to end our reliance on custody and moved towards effective community sentences that enhance public safety and promote rehabilitation. The evidence shows that they are more effective at reducing reoffending and thus reducing the risk of further victims. When this Government first came to power, more people were given custodial sentences than community sentences. Since then, there has been an increasing shift in favour of community sentences. The latest figures show that, in 2015-16, over 5,000 more community sentences were imposed than custodial sentences. That is 5,000 more opportunities for individuals to pay back for their harm that they have caused. It is also fewer prison receptions taking up resources in our prison system and fewer people having to make the difficult transition from custody back into the community. That transition also happens for people held on remand, which is why the programme for government also outlines our continued backing for supported and supervised bail, helping individuals to remain in the community under supervision. This Government will continue to promote the delivery of effective evidence-based interventions, designed to prevent and reduce further offending. Our national strategy for community justice sets out our commitment to shifting criminal justice interventions upstream using the least-intrusive intervention at the earliest point. It encourages justice partners to maximise opportunities for the appropriate use of diversion from prosecution to help address the underlying causes of offending and ensures that people get access to drug, alcohol, mental health or other appropriate services. We remain committed to supporting local authorities in delivering robust community sentences that deliver tangible benefits for our communities. Funding for criminal justice social work remains at record levels. We invested an additional £4 million in community sentencing in 2016-17 and again in 2017-18. Last week, we announced legislation that would give our sentensers broader options and powers for using electronic monitoring. Just this morning, we published analysis of a public consultation on our next steps. Electronic monitoring is already an important tool in the delivery of justice. It carries a punitive element and offers a range of options to improve public protection, while allowing an individual to maintain their employment and their family links. When used to enforce curfew conditions, it can provide stability to those who are offending as part and parcel of a chaotic lifestyle. The forthcoming legislation will expand the range of options and enable the use of new technology such as GPS. Sitting alongside community sentences, the presumption against short sentences underlines our determination to move away from short-term custodial sentences. It is, of course, a presumption and not a ban. Sentencing discretion remains with the courts, and it is for the courts to decide the appropriate sentence based on the facts at hand. The purpose of the presumption is to ensure that short sentences are imposed when they are the only suitable option. As I have made clear, our vision for community justice is predicated on an evidence-based approach. That evidence shows that the use of very short sentences has fallen over the past decade. However, it also shows that we need to go further if we are to make a real impact on Scotland's high rate of imprisonment and the negative consequences of short-term sentences. That is why we consulted on a proposal to strengthen the presumption. The responses to the consultation were overwhelmingly supportive of an extension, and the vast majority of those who expressed a view favoured a presumption against sentences of 12 months or less. There was, however, a clear view that any extension of the presumption would need to be accompanied by a commitment to developing and resourcing community sentences, and concerns were voiced by a number of respondents over the need to ensure that the court was able to take steps to protect victims, especially victims of domestic violence. Since the consultation closed, this Government has worked with stakeholders across the justice sector to address these very concerns. In March of this year, I brought before this Parliament the Domestic Abuse Scotland Bill. The bill contains a number of provisions specifically designed to protect the victims of domestic abuse. It will ensure that, when sentencing, courts are required to have regard of the needs to protect victims from further offences and contains provisions that will make it mandatory for the court to consider imposing a non-harassment order following a conviction. Of course, the bill contains the new domestic abuse offence, carrying a tough maximum sentence of 14 years, which will improve the justice system's ability to hold perpetrators of domestic abuse to account. Those provisions place the safety of victims at the heart of the legislation, and I urge members across the chamber to support this important bill in the coming months. I can confirm that we will work in collaboration with Scottish Women's Aid to ensure that developments in electronic monitoring will improve the safety of women and children who are affected by domestic abuse. We have already taken steps to create a more progressive landscape for the delivery of community sentences, with a new model coming into effect on 1 April this year. The model places decision-making locally with those who know their community's best, who understand the problems in their areas and who will be most affected by community justice issues. Under the new model, local planning, delivery and collaboration are complemented by national leadership and strategic direction provided by a new body, Community Justice Scotland. Community Justice Scotland will raise awareness of the benefits of community sentences and build public support. Working with community justice partners and stakeholders, it will drive improvement in service delivery in order to build safer, stronger and more inclusive communities. I believe that, in combination, those measures address the concerns expressed by respondents to the consultation. That is why we will not only implement the extension to the presumption once the relevant provisions of the domestic abuse bill are in force. Subject to approval by Parliament, I anticipate that the extended presumption will therefore be in place by the end of 2018. This Government believes that extending the presumption is in line with its progressive approach to criminal justice policy. More than that, in concert with its on-going approach to deliver safer and stronger communities, it is about being the progressive and socially inclusive nation that we want to be. Thank you very much, cabinet secretary. The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in this statement and tend to allow around 30 minutes for questions after which we must move on to the next item of business that will be helpful if those members who wish to ask a question were to press the request to speak buttons now. I call Liam Kerr to be followed by Clare Baker. Mr Kerr, please. Thank you, Deputy Deputy Presiding Officer. I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of his statement. Let me make clear at the outset that I welcome parts of the statement, in particular the expansion in use of new forms of electronic monitoring—something called for in my party's manifesto—and the general principles of the domestic abuse bill. However, there are areas of concern. Can the cabinet secretary really refer to the current system of community sentences as robust and effective when a third of community payback orders are never completed and some offenders are waiting over a year for their work placement to begin? Although the focus on reducing re-offending is welcome, will the cabinet secretary recognise that, after 10 years of Scottish National Party Government, the re-offending rate has barely shifted from where it was at the start of devolution, one in three? To address that, will he agree that, alongside a rigorous system of community sentences, we must also ensure that there is adequate work and purposeful activity in prisons and reverse his Government's 300,000-hour cut in the last two years? I welcome his support for a greater use of electronic monitoring. I am not entirely sure what his own party's views are on the type of electronic monitoring and how it should be used in partnership with community sentencing, because we know that electronic monitoring used on its own is very ineffective. It has to be part of a programme that addresses individuals offending behaviour. That is why we support the extension. I am slightly surprised that the member supports the idea of a greater use of electronic monitoring but not a greater use of community sentencing, which is a key part of making it effective. If you look at experience across Europe, that is exactly how it is made much more effective. I also welcome his support for the domestic abuse bill, which is a slight change in approach from the previous Justice Spokesperson for the Conservative Party. The issue of compliance with the completion of community payback orders, the reality is that the completion of community payback orders, since they have been changed, has increased compared to the previous scheme, which was in place. There has been an increase in compliance and the completion of those particular orders, but alongside that, the outcomes for them are better. When the member says that the reconviction rate has not changed, the reality is that the reconviction rate is at its lowest level in 18 years, which is a significant improvement. I suspect that the member is not aware of this, but it is better than any other part of the UK compared to the issue. That is important progress, and that has happened during the course of an increasing use of community payback orders. The approach that we are determined to take in this Government is based on evidence. What is more effective in tackling the causes that drive someone's offending behaviour? In doing that, effectively, we can reduce the risk of individuals committing offences again in the future. All of the evidence, not just here in Scotland but internationally, demonstrates that community payback orders and community sentencing are much more effective than short-term prison sentences. If we get that right, we can reduce the risk of offenders committing offences again in the future. That is exactly what we are going to be taking forward. That is why, in Scotland, recorded crime is also at a 42-year low. We have a very strong track record on how we deliver justice in this country, and the track record that we have over the past 10 years in changing the way in which we are delivering community sentencing is also demonstrating the benefits that come from that. That is what the programme of work will take forward. Claire Baker Thank you to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice for Scotland's advance copay of the statement. There is much that we can agree on, and we support the need for prison reform and the important role that community sentencing can play. However, there are a couple of points that I wish to raise. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice for Scotland will be aware that crimes currently given less than 12 months sentencing include handling offensive weapons, assaults, violent crimes and domestic abuse. The Scottish Labour's manifesto committed to an increase to six months. He will need to work hard to convince the public of the merits of his argument, particularly those who have been victims of crimes that are often very distressing and even life-changing. Can I ask if he has given enough so far to convince the women's aid of those plans? The existing presumption at the moment does not mean an end to sentencing of up to three months. I constantly hear that there is a lack of confidence within the courts for the community options, and a sentencing option will often be taken because it is seen in the best interests of the convicted as well as the victim. Community options are often under funded, patchy and provision and can be opened to abuses. We are all familiar with reports about the level of breaches and stretched resources. How will the cabinet secretary ensure that community options are properly resourced and that they provide a robust alternative that victims can have confidence in and deliver a system that puts the protection of the public first? Picking up on the latter part that the member made about the confidence around community sentencing, I agree that that is extremely important. It has been a longstanding issue about making sure that our sentencers have confidence in the community disposals that are to hand. We know from some of the research work that has been carried out that sentencers have greater confidence in the community payback scheme that we now have in place compared to the previous scheme. That was part of the review that was carried out in 2015, identifying that from our sentencers. However, we need to make sure that we build on that and continue to have our sentencers having confidence in that process. That is why we have provided that extra £4 million to our local authorities to deliver further community sentence programmes and to extend the range of programmes that are available. We have now provided that over two financial years and we will consider that going forward because it is an area of priority that I recognise is important in expanding the range of options that are there and also to make sure that our sentencers have confidence in them. However, if the public are to have faith in the greater use of community sentences, they must be effective in delivering better outcomes. Just today, I was in Dumfirmland and Fife looking at the Wings project, which is delivered there by the local authority that was initially set up by funding that came from the Scottish Government around changing our approach to female offending. The outcomes from that project have been really positive. It is a demonstration of local policy being taken forward by a local authority making a real difference in tackling offending of behaviour among young people and it has the confidence of sentencers who make use of that. I turn to the issue though around some of the specific offences that she made reference to. For example, the average custodial sentence for handling offensive weapons has more than doubled in the last 10 years. It has gone from 160 days in 2006, 7 to 365 days in 2015-16. For some of the other areas as well, including domestic violence, very often sentencers have increased over the last 10 years for those particular offences. However, it is also important to recognise that the presumption is exactly that. It is a presumption. If a sentencer still believes that an individual for any of those offences should have a period in custody, that option will remain open to them and it will be their choice to make that decision. It is important to recognise that those sentences have been increasing for a range of the crimes that the member made reference to. It has also got to be recognised that, even with a presumption, the sentencer will still have the right to be able to impose a custodial sentence if they believe that that is the most appropriate measure that should be applied. I have 13 members wishing to ask questions. I have 20 minutes. You can do the arithmetic, so could I ask for succinct questions, please? I welcome the steps taken by the Government in recent years to tackle domestic abuse, including bringing forward the new legislation. Given that, and that increased awareness and reporting of such offences is likely to lead to a higher rate of conviction and community payback orders, what steps is the Government taking to ensure that resources are made available to effective, specifically around domestic abuse rehabilitation programmes to reduce the risk of re-offending? I must give a definition of succinct some time. We have taken forward a range of measures to support organisations that work with women who experience domestic abuse, including providing an extra £20 million from the justice portfolio over the course of the past three years to support some of those measures. Part of that includes, for example, extending the programme of the Caledonian programme, tackling those who perpetrate domestic abuse in order to change their behaviour. Alongside that, the measures that we put in the domestic abuse bill with the mandatory requirement to consider a non-harassment order in order to protect women who have experienced domestic abuse. However, as I mentioned in my statement, we are also going to be looking at how electronic monitoring can be used to help to support women who have experienced domestic abuse as well. That is one of the pilot projects that we will look at taking forward on electronic monitoring with women's aid in Scotland. Margaret Mitchell will follow by Rona Mackay. The cabinet secretary makes no reference to those at risk of offending, many of whom do so as a result of debt. Is he aware of cap debt counselling, which works Scotland-wide, helping those in crisis with debt? Can he outline how the Scottish Government will raise awareness about the work of voluntary and third sector organisations like cap counselling that do so much to identify and support those at risk of offending? I recognise that debt is an issue that can blip many individuals and family households. There are a range of measures that the Scottish Government takes forward in working in partnership with agencies to tackle issues of debt and to ensure that individuals receive the right advice and information to assist them in addressing any issues of debt. However, given a very specific project that the member raised, I will ask my cabinet colleague, Angela Constance, who is responsible for this area of policy, to write to the member, setting out exactly the measures that have been taken forward to support those types of organisations. I think that it was connected to the statement in that it may lead people into crime and so on in conviction. I think that that was the link that you were making. I saw a little frown on your face. Rona Mackay, all by Mary Fee. What impact will the presumption against short sentences have on the Scottish prison service? The impact of the presumption against short sentences moving to 12 months on the prison population will be dependent on how sentences are chose to take that forward. For example, if there is a greater use of community sentencing, that could result in a reduction in the number of individuals who receive a short-term prison sentence of less than 12 months. What we have seen, since the presumption has moved to three months, is that we have seen a reduction in the number of people who have received sentences of under three months. It would be reasonable to anticipate that we would see a reduction in the overall prison population should more of our sensors choose not to send someone to custody for less than 12 months and to make use of a community disposal instead. However, that will be entirely dependent on how our judiciary choose to take that forward. With local authorities and partner agencies on the ground taking on a greater role in community justice, will the cabinet secretary provide an assurance today that Scotland's councils, which have seen budgets cut year after year by his Government, will he give an assurance that he will receive funding for community justice that matches the real cost of delivering effective and meaningful community sentences, as COSLA has highlighted? Can he also confirm when the funding formula for community sentences will be announced because he has not done that today? The funding formula for the allocation of resources has already been published earlier this year, as it was agreed with COSLA and the COSLA leadership group that was applied to the financial year. That is already an area that has been agreed to. I should point out to the member that community justice budgets have been protected during the whole course of the last number of years under this Government. In fact, we have increased them with the extra £4 million that we have put in over the past two years to them, but the community justice social work budgets have been ring-fenced for some time and we continue to protect them. That is why, with the additional £4 million over the past two years, we have record funding for community justice programmes. I should also point out that the support for community justice programmes is not just funding that goes to local authorities. For example, we support a range of organisations such as SACRO, APEX, Shine Mentoring, etc., who provide services right across the country, who are national service providers within the third sector. We have been increasing our level of funding available to them to provide those types of services going forward over the past couple of years. Cabinet Secretary, your reference was made to the resource allocation model. Some community disposals require a certain cohort of personnel involved to make them viable. Can you advise whether the resource allocation model reflects that and thereby ensures that offenders in rural areas are not disadvantaged over offenders in urban areas? The member raises an important point. It is worth re-emphasising to Parliament that the resource allocation model that is now in place is one that was agreed by local authorities in Scotland in partnership with the Scottish Government. We have taken that forward on a co-production basis so that it is designed to try to help to support local authorities as best possible. We have also said that the transition will be over a five-year period so that there is no marked financial disadvantage to the reallocation of resources. A specific part of the resource allocation model is to ensure that the resources that are allocated to local authorities are reflective of the real need in that community. It should ensure that our rural communities, where there is a real need, are better reflected on how funding is allocated to local authorities going forward. There were concerns about the previous model, which was largely focused on allocation to our main central belt local authorities. That allows for a greater, more effective distribution of that funding across all local authorities in Scotland, reflecting local need. Liam McArthur, followed by Graeme Dey. I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement for the liberal measures within it and to his response to John Finnie's question. He is referred to Cosland, Sacro, but both are pointing to the significant expansion that is needed in provision and the real cost of the additional resources that will need to be put in. Is he aware of that and what assurances can he give to Cosland, Sacro and others that those resources will be committed by the Government? I recognise that there is a reduction in the number of individuals who receive a custodial sentence that we will have to see a greater expansion of community disposals. That is why, two years ago, I took a decision to increase the allocation of resources to community based programmes to allow them to start to expand and to develop. What I would anticipate as we see some of the changes within our overall prison population is a freeing up of some of the resources that are presently tied down to our custodial estate, which I would then seek to look at reallocating into community-based programmes. That is a process that I said that we have already started with the £4 million increase over the course of the past two years, and I will continue to look at how we can have an incremental increase in that as we go forward. Importantly, it is not just about increasing funding to local authorities, it will also be about making sure that we have third sector organisations such as Sacro and others able to support some of that work across the country through some of the national programmes that they deliver. Graham Dey following by Maurice Corry. The cabinet secretary will be aware of the important work that is carried out by existing community-based services targets, specifically female offenders. The Glyn-Iowa project that is based in my constituency is one very good example of that. Can the cabinet secretary expand on the role that he envisages such projects having going forward? I am aware of that, particularly the project in the value that has come from it. The member may be aware of working with female offenders that we had the change fund, which was there to support the initiation of some of those services within local communities. What we did not do was impose a particular type of model for working with female offenders. We wanted that to be developed at a local level. Angus was one of the areas that followed a model that was reflective of the local community's needs. The purpose behind the funding that we put into place was to help to support that model being developed and then for that to be mainstreamed within the local authority area. Some of the local authorities have now taken that forward. There is absolutely no doubt from what I witnessed today in the way in which Fife Council has taken it forward, which has been very impressive with the Wings project, just demonstrates how successful that type of approach can be. The project that the member makes reference to in Angus is another example of that type of success. I see the projects as being key to the on-going work in changing the way in which we deal with female offenders. Equally, with the change in the female custodial estate, I recognise that there will need to be a greater tie-in between some of those projects and the new female custodial units when individuals are being released from them back into the local communities. However, having them closer to Angus and that of Compton Vale will help to facilitate that type of partnership working, which will be absolutely crucial to help to reduce the risk of those individuals when they go back into the community to be able to settle back in and to become productive members of a local community. Maurice Corry, followed by Ben Macpherson. Can the cabinet secretary offer any reassurance to those communities and victims of crime living in Maryhill and Dundee who may have concerns about the safety of their new community custodial units? Cabinet secretary, I recognise the issue that the member has raised. I am sure that he will recognise our determination to fundamentally change the way in which we tackle the whole issue of female offending. However, what I think is also worth noting is that I think that there is a danger, and I say just a danger that some people may choose to try and turn it into a political football on the basis of the location where some of those facilities will go. That is a transformational approach to tackling female offenders in Scotland and those who come into our custodial estate. I hope that there will be cross-party support right across the chamber for that change in model and the benefits that can come from female custodial units. We know from the Angelina report that we are looking at female custodial issues that smaller units in local communities closer to the community where the individual came from and the services that will support them once they go back into the community are much more effective in reducing the risk of their offending behaviour again in the future. Of course, those units will be for individuals who are of low risk. However, I certainly hope that, across the chamber, there will be cross-party support for that change in model and to provide assurances to communities that is about delivering greater safety within the whole issue of working with female offenders, rather than increasing risk. I strongly welcome today's statement because it is widely accepted that community justice helps to reduce re-offending. However, what action is the Scottish Government also taking to reduce the chances of those given custodial sentences from re-offending? One of the benefits that I believe from reducing the prison population is that it will increase capacity within our prison service to tackle the causes of those who have committed serious offences much more effectively. We just have to look at the conditions and the situation in England and Wales where there is just complete chaos in the prison estate. One of the major problems that it has as a result of that is that it is not able to deliver effective rehabilitation programmes to any great degree. Part of the challenge that we have in Scotland is that we still have a large part of the prison services resources that are taken up by the churn of short-term prisoners moving through the system. That takes up a disproportionately large amount of the prison systems resources. If some of those resources can be released and some of the capacity that comes from that is released, it allows us to focus more of those resources on tackling some of the issues of the serious offenders who are within our custodial estate, while at the same time allowing us in the future to move some of that resource into the community setting as well. That is one of the real potential benefits that we have in reducing our prison population. I hear members who say that what we need to do is just to have more rehabilitation within our prisons. The reality is that for short-term prisoners from the time of being inducted into the prison and the time that they are leaving, it is a very short window to address any form of offending behaviour. Anyone who has any knowledge of the approach to rehabilitation would recognise that trying to do that effectively in such a short period of time is quite frankly almost impossible to do. That is why if we are to deliver effective rehabilitation, it is better that it is targeted at those who are in prison for a longer period of time and taking a community-based approach, which is much more effective in tackling offending behaviour. Mark Griffin will follow by Tair Hocky. The cabinet secretary has rightly spoken about the impact that imprisonment has on employment opportunities and stable housing, which is likely to increase rates of re-offending. Can I ask what discussions the cabinet secretary and his officials have had around the new social security powers and social security agency and what practical support they would be offering offenders who are just about to be released from prison? The member raises a very important issue, because one of the real challenges for individuals being liberated from prison is issues around housing and issues around welfare and employment, which is one of the reasons why we also set out in the programme for government the need to make sure that we have a greater provision of supervised bail and other bail options, rather than remand, because we know effectively that that allows someone, if they are in employment or half-housing, for that to be maintained until the point of the matter reaching court and sentence being imposed thereafter. I have already had discussions and there is on-going work within Government, both with Jeane Freeman and with Kevin Stewart looking at how we can align the new social security powers that we have to better meet the needs of some of those who are being liberated from prison. For example, one of the real challenges around the DWP's changes to universal credit was that it had to be able to apply for it online. The challenges were in prison and it had to have an address before it could apply for it, but for many individuals who are in prison, they did not have an address and they did not have access to a computer to be able to facilitate that, which created problems right from the very outset, which meant that very often they were being liberated without having access to benefits. So we have already been doing work internally in Government to look at how we can address those very specific measures that would help to support an individual getting into housing, but also being able to get access to welfare at the point when they are liberated from prison and ministers within Government have already engaged in that process with the Scottish Prison Service to look at how we can deliver that much more effectively going forward. Clare Haughey, followed by Gordon Lindhurst. Can the cabinet secretary provide more detail about which groups took part in the consultation on the presumption against short sentences and what evidence they gave to support that position? The feedback that we received from the consultation has been published, but it ranged from organisations from COSLA through to experts within the justice sector, within the academic world, to those within SACRO, APEX through to the Howard League and a range of individual local authorities. There is a wide range of organisations. I should also mention Scottish Women's Aid and some of the other organisations that work with women who have experienced domestic violence. That is also why, when members were raising the issue about when we would publish our views on the responses to the consultation, I made it very clear at that time, that we were working through the responses that we had received, and in particular the concerns that have been raised by a couple of those stakeholders, particularly Scottish Women's Aid. I set out my statement and measures that we have taken forward in order to address the concerns that they had raised during the course of the consultation. It is worth keeping in mind that there was overwhelming support from those who responded to the consultation to moving the presumption against short sentences moving to 12 months. I welcome the commitment to a system that works with communities to reduce and ultimately prevent further offending. I also recognise the comments about those who are on short-term sentences, but we have something like 1,000-plus prisoners currently in the Scottish prisons who are not engaged in what the guidelines refer to as purposeful activity. I am just wondering if the cabinet secretary can give an indication of what specific measures are being looked at to try and address that specific issue for those who remain in prison. The review of purposeful activity was carried out by the SPS, and it is already taking forward a range of measures to change the way in which activities are delivered within the prison estate. I must re-emphasise the issue about the idea of purposeful activity in working with short-term prisoners. There are probably in the region of around 4,000 short-term prisoners who go through the Scottish prison estate in the course of any year. Put that in context of the fact that we have around 7,000 to 7,500 prisoners in the system over the course of a year just demonstrates the number of short-term prisoners that they are working with. Many of whom will present with alcohol and drug mental health issues that need to be addressed. What the Scottish prison service will do is to try to address those issues as best they can within that short period of time. However, the member will recognise that when someone naturally comes into prison with many years, possibly many decades, of problems with alcohol and drugs and mental health issues, it is almost impossible for the prison service to address that within a six-month or seven-month period. The reality is that, to deal with those issues, you need a much longer period of time in order to address them much more effectively. One of the big problems that undermines the prison service being able to work more effectively with other prisoners who are in for more than a year is the churn of short-term prisoners that takes up a disproportionate amount of the prison services resource. If we can free up some of that capacity, it will allow them to give greater focus to purposeful activity and other appropriate interventions while someone is in prison. At the same time, it will allow us to use those resources in the community that are much more effective in dealing with the underlying causes that drive offending behaviour such as alcohol, drug and mental health issues, which we know can be much more effectively addressed when someone is on a community disposal. Emma Harper Does the cabinet secretary agree that enabling female offenders to maintain links with their families will not only benefit them but will often benefit the families, potentially reducing the chances of children becoming involved in crime as they grow up? The member raises a very important point, which was one of the key issues that was highlighted by the Angelini report, highlighting in particular the breaking family link. It can have a breaking anybody's family link during the period of custody. It can have a very significant impact on that family, but in particular it can have a very negative impact on any children in that family. There is a growing body of evidence that shows that adverse childhood events such as parental imprisonment can have a very significant impact on that child's development in the future, with an increasing risk that they end up getting involved in the criminal justice system themselves. We have to listen to the evidence in this matter, and it is clearly an issue that we know can also damage children affected by parental imprisonment. However, we have now put additional resources in place to allow a range of family contact centres to be provided at our prisons. We now have 11 in place. I opened the most recent at Glen Ocle, which is there to support that contact between family and prisoner. However, the reason that we have moved to a model around the female custodial estate, which is the smaller community custodial units, is to allow women to then be placed in custody much closer to their family to be able to maintain those contacts more effectively. However, when they leave that establishment, the services that are there to support them and assist them are the services that have been assisting them while they were in the community unit as well. That is a model that we know can be much more effective in helping to support women who do find themselves in custody, but we also know that it can help to support the family more effectively and reduce the risk that it exposes children who experience a period of their parent being in custody. I believe that that will achieve better outcomes in the future, but also, importantly, it will also prevent those individuals from committing further offences in the future, because family contact is a key factor in promoting assistance.