 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, please. I updated Parliament in October that the prison population had risen in 2023 by around 9 per cent. At that time, the population was 7,937. As of yesterday, it was 7,959. Although the rate of increase has slowed, the population remains too high and we monitor this on a weekly basis. As I've previously said, doing nothing is not an option. This is not just about the number of people in prison, it is about the impact and the complexities, as those can create new pressures which detract from the ability to focus on prisoner progression and care, all of which demands action. The prison population projections, published on 13 February, highlight the need for our focus on early and effective intervention, diversion and rehabilitative support. To accommodate the increase, our prison service is keeping its population management strategy under review. That includes taking a range of actions to optimise the current prison estate, which has already seen the transfer of male prisoners into accommodation previously housing women at HMP Edinburgh, and the transfer of robustly risk-assessed adult male prisoners to HMP Pullman. To be clear, the Scottish Government is not changing its position on the use of prison. It will always be necessary for those who pose a risk of harm or threaten the delivery of justice. Protecting victims and the public from harm is my absolute priority. We all want the same thing—less crime, fewer victims and safer communities. However, we must recognise that prison, although absolutely necessary in many cases, is often not the best way to reduce recidivism. We know that those released from short sentences are reconvicted nearly twice as often as those sentenced to a community payback order. As stated by Sheriff Mackie in the recent BBC disclosures programme and I quote Sheriff Mackie, the idea of somebody serving a life sentence three months at a time is a real thing. We know that short prison sentences do no good. With the increased investment of £40 million through the draft budget, we will ensure that the courts can access a wide range of effective, high-quality community interventions. The majority of that additional funding will be used to increase the capacity of justice social work whose expertise, advice and support is so critical to almost every aspect of the criminal justice system. That includes alternatives to remand and work is on-going to increase availability of those with input and collaboration from key partners. Significant progress has been made, a total of 1,100 bail supervision cases where commenced in 2022-23, the highest in the last 10 years. The number of people currently being electronically monitored is 1,860. 416 of those are bail orders and I am keen that justice partners make all available use of this measure where appropriate. Alongside partners, we are also making good progress to introduce new electronic monitoring technology and pilot GPS functionality, initially for people being released on home detention curfew scheme or HDC. This additional option will further support people being managed as they reintegrate into communities. That is why we are also working with the prison service, risk management authority and justice social work to optimise the use of HDC across the prison estate where appropriate to support reintegration and a structured return to the community. HDC is used in other jurisdictions including England and Wales. As members know, we are also working with justice agencies to develop commencement plans within the next year for the reform of the bail and release from custody Scotland Act passed last year. The provisions in this act are intended to refocus the use of remand so that it is reserved for those who pose a risk to victim and public safety and in certain circumstances the delivery of justice. The provisions will also improve planning and support for people leaving prison. Let me now turn to our prison service. Of course, prison staff are on the front line, and they deserve our praise and support for the work that they do. A high prison population impacts on those working and living in our prisons. Increasing investment in the resource budget by 10 per cent to £436.6 million in 2024-25 will enable our prison service to safely manage the increasingly complex population as well as pay progression for staff. We must also acknowledge the complexities of need in the prison population due to an increasingly ageing population. The Scottish prison service is actively considering estate optimisation options, including the possibility of new or adapted accommodation to better meet increasing social care needs. We will work with the Scottish prison service to undertake a review of social care in prisons, which will include a full data assessment of the need across the prison estate and assessment process, and, importantly, developing strategies to support the changing social care needs of the prison estate. That work will include an options analysis on creating bespoke facilities for prisoners with social care, and I will be discussing that with the cross-portfolio ministerial group on prison health and social care tomorrow. While work is under way to respond to the high prison population, we need to understand and address its root causes if we are to take a long-term, sustainable and evidence-based approach to those who offend. Like England and Wales, Scotland has one of the highest uses of custody in Western Europe. In 2023, we imprisoned around 132 people per 100,000 compared to 137 in England and Wales, 106 in France, 98 in Spain and 51 in the Netherlands. However, there is nothing intrinsic about our country that means that it should not and could not have a penal policy, which leads to it no longer being an outlier. It has now been over 15 years since the Scottish Prisons Commission chaired by Henry McLeish examined how imprisonment is used in Scotland, and while we have made good progress on many of the commission's recommendations, a lot has changed since then. We have seen an increase in the reporting of sexual offences, fewer individuals going to prison each year but an average serving longer sentences, increased pressure on the high court and an ageing prison population with complex care needs, which our prisons were not designed to deal with. There is now a pressing need to consider models of care within prison and the right range of robust community justice alternatives to short-term sentences. I think that the time is right to look again at the sort of justice system that we want to have. To that end, I plan to commence an externally led review of sentencing and penal policy. That will allow us both to revisit the fundamental question of how imprisonment is used and to go beyond that to consider how to meet what is surely a shared aim across the chamber to deal with offending behaviour in an effective and proportionate way to reduce re-offending through meaningful rehabilitation and to keep our communities safe. That is not about reducing the prison population as an end in itself but about ensuring that custody is used for the right people and at the right time and not as a replacement for taking effective community-based action to tackle public health problems such as addiction or poor mental health. That will not be a simple task given the complexities within our justice system. The scope and approach of the review will need to be developed with partners and any prospective chair, but an in-depth review will offer the chance to answer key questions about our approach to offending behaviour and to make recommendations both for the short and long-term reform. I want this review to offer its initial findings for consideration by Government and Parliament during this parliamentary session. I would welcome views from members and will be asking justice representatives from all parties to meet and discuss this in due course. The needs of the prison population are increasingly more complex. Again, I would like to pay tribute to the Scottish Prison Service and to our justice partners. We are working together to take action and will continue to do so. A serious and significant challenge remains. While the prison population has not deteriorated further, we need to continue at pace to prevent this issue from persisting or reoccurring. I will continue to keep Parliament updated. Thank you. 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. I would be grateful if members wished to put a question where to press their request-to-speak buttons. I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of her statement. It is important to note that each and every prisoner is behind bars due to the outcome of a robust, fair and independent judicial process. I am sure that people will share my relief today that the statement is not some plan to conduct a mass release. As we saw during the pandemic, that would have been a mistake. Prisoners released on mass and without support would again have resulted in significant re-offending. Part of the problem is that the SNP Government has failed to build adequate prison capacity. HMP Glasgow will be years late and cost at least £400 million. The Government talks about alternatives to custody, but fails to deliver them. The cabinet secretary spoke about robust community service alternatives, so take alcohol monitoring technology as an example. This equipment precisely detects if the wearer has consumed alcohol in breach of bail or parole conditions. This smart technology is being used successfully across the rest of the UK, while the SNP is still thinking about it. I would like to see action on this, and I would be grateful if the cabinet secretary could explain when those will be used to their full potential. I also note that the cabinet secretary says that yet another review is being instructed, words that fill most of us, I am sure, with dread. I would like to know what is the exact purpose of the review, and who will be on it. Crucially, can she give a commitment that the voices of victims will be heard? I am very pleased that Mr Finlay, like I, wishes at all times to uphold the independence of our courts and judiciary. As he knows, I have no plans for emergency release. In terms of building more prisons, I will be direct with Parliament. We cannot build our way out of this, not least because the capital budget available to this Parliament over the next five years will be reduced by 10%. I have been more than happy to discuss with members in chamber and outwith when they have been advocating for their local SPS establishment in terms of maintenance, or the progress that can and must be made in and around the replacement of HMP Birlini and the new HMP Highland. I would be interested to discuss with Mr Finlay his views on the alcohol monitoring technology that I have in the not-too-distant past received a briefing on this matter. I think that the use of technology has a place to pay. That is why I am keen that we push forward, for example, with GPS technology, but that is not the only technological solution. The review will be what we make of it, whether we, as a Parliament and a country, can come together to ensure that we get the right solutions in place for the short-term, medium and longer-term. We should not be constantly revisiting issues and the problems that are caused by a high prison population. That will require courage across the political parties and it will require leadership across political parties. In terms of the voice of victims, Mr Finlay is always at the heart of everything. Scottish Labour also would like to pay tribute to the SPS and its staff for a very hard job that they do. One of the cabinet secretary can give some more detail on the plan to use GPS functionality in the use of community sentencing. Scottish Labour is very interested to talk to the Scottish Government about developments in that regard, but the statement said that it is not just about the number of people in prison, it is the impact on the ability to focus on prisoner progress. There does not seem to be included in the plan any plans to improve the conditions that prisoners are serving the sentencing, because they are still doubling up in sales and there is a lack of activity. It is hard to see how any of that addresses the acute nature of serious overcrowding. I also wonder when we will get to see when the strategy for older people is a concrete commitment or not, because I know that it is just a possibility. But critically on the question of Burlini, since the cabinet secretary has raised this, there is some confusion now about this timeline. Can the cabinet secretary be absolutely clear with Parliament what is the timeline for Burlini? Are you still committed to doing it? Will we see one brick laid this side of the parliamentary term, or is the truth that you have dropped this any serious commitment to Burlini? I very much appreciate Ms McNeill's tribute to the Scottish Prison Service. The work in our prisons is often unseen, but it should never be unheard of what happens within our prisons matters. That is why the points that she raises about the impacts of condition, the impacts of overcrowding on progression and reintegration opportunities are certainly points that I would never, for a minute, demurr from. I have, of course, as you would expect, engaged extensively with the Scottish Prison Service and because individual rehabilitation regimes vary, I know that they are working hard to maintain that as much as they can in as many circumstances as possible. I am pleased to say that they are doing a really good job in maintaining family contact and that, of course, is important for rehabilitation and reintegration. In terms of HNP Burlini, we have no option other than to replace HNP Burlini. As I said in the not-too-distant past in this chamber, once we have the final design, we will be able to give much more clarity on the final costs. The costs are not insignificant, and we will be able to give more absolute clarity around specific timescales. However, plans are progressing and the designs are progressing, and we have a much better feel for the capacity and the model that would operate within the new prison. Similarly, while we have a lot of work to do in terms of taking forward what I outlined in my statement with regard to older people, we have an ageing prison population in the same way that we have an ageing community. Again, doing nothing is not an option, and I will certainly keep Parliament fully informed. I am keen to get in all members who have press, so I would be grateful for concise questions and responses. I thank the cabinet secretary for her update and note the challenges faced in respect of the prison population in Scotland that are long-standing and complex. As the cabinet secretary outlined, the justice sector will see a welcome increase in the draft budget in the next financial year. I ask for some more detail on how the increase will assist, address and reduce the prison population increase that is currently being experienced. To be specific, the draft budget has a total of £140 million to be invested into community justice. That is an additional £14 million, and that will certainly be utilised to encourage wider use of robust community-based interventions. The majority of the additional investment will be provided to local authorities for justice social work services. However, the additional investment demonstrates our commitment to ensuring that alternatives to custody are consistently available, and that includes community payback orders. The work that we can do around structured, deferred sentences would be one example. Community-based interventions can also help to minimise disruption to families and communities and to support people to maintain stable relationships, housing and employment. As I said in my statement, it is crucial that we ensure that we have the right breadth and depth of community disposals available to our independent communities. There has been a troubling pattern of releasing dangerous criminals early alongside a worrying rise in the prison population. Despite that pattern, funding for crucial aspects of under-pressure criminal justice social work has remained static. Meanwhile, organisations that help to keep people out of prisons and reduce their prison population are faced with severe budget cuts. We welcome the investment of £14 million, but that is a drop in the ocean. Criminal justice social work is already on its knees, so can I ask the cabinet secretary if that is really enough to help those organisations to make a real difference to the rising prison population? Well, Presiding Officer, as a former forensic mental health social worker and a former criminal justice social worker, I believe that I am well pleased to know what is required. Of course, if Ms Dowie and her colleagues have any amendments to the budget this afternoon that is with respect to increasing funding further to criminal justice social work services, I am sure that Parliament will await to hear that. Nonetheless, I am glad on a point of consensus that she welcomes the additional £14 million. Again, to refer to her colleague, Mr Finlay's point about respecting the role of our independent courts and judiciaries, people are released from prison either when their sentence is expired or when the independent parole board has made a decision based on a risk assessment. Nonetheless, in response to the many letters that I have received from colleagues across the chamber, it is important now that we have a review of sentencing and penal policy. Again, I will ask for concise questions and responses and I call Rona Mackay to be followed by Katie Clark. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I ask the cabinet secretary how the new community custody units are working to improve outcomes for women in custody and can lessons be learned for the rest of the prison service? In terms of lessons learned, a formal evaluation is currently under way. I very much hope that we can learn a lot from the innovation and trauma-informed facilities that we now see at the Bella Centre in Dundee and the Lillias Centre in Glasgow. Both of those facilities represent a step change in the rehabilitation of women in custody. The custody units are supporting women to develop key life skills and a degree of independence to give them the best possible chance of a successful return to the community after leaving custody. Considerable investment was made in the new women's custody units. However, last year we were advised that occupancy rates were less than 50 per cent for most of the time, with the highest occupancy rate being 52 per cent. Can the cabinet secretary provide reassurance to the Parliament that the assessment criteria have been reviewed and that those excellent facilities are now fully utilised? Yes, I can assure the member that the assessment criteria has been reviewed. We are seeing an increase in occupancy in the women's community custody states. It is now roundabout two thirds. We are also seeing a safe increase in occupancy at both the women's estate and at HMP Castle Huntley, which I visited just the other week. During the previous statement on that issue, I asked the cabinet secretary about the increase in social care needs of prisoners, which followed on from the Government of HMP Oakles calls for bespoke facilities to be considered for this group. I am pleased that today's statement includes a commitment to review and analyse the situation with the SPS. Can the cabinet secretary what that review will entail and will it consider international models where appropriate? Yes, we would of course consider international models where they are appropriate to be again direct with the parliamentary condition of prisons, particularly with the older Victorian estates presents a significant challenge for the delivery of social care and the engagement of prisoners with mobility issues in everyday prison activity. Cells are often too small to accommodate wheelchairs or hospital beds, and there is no room to retrofit accessible showers or toileting facilities. The annual prison population statistics published in December tell us that there were 451 people in custody over the age of 60, and that represents a 130 per cent increase over the past decade. Along with the Scottish Prison Service, we will push ahead with the work that I have outlined in the statement today. The cabinet secretary is right that prison overcrowding puts staff at risk and undermines efforts to rehabilitate prisoners. It is clear that the remand population is stubbornly high and that courts lack the confidence in the consistency and effectiveness of alternatives to remand. What is the cabinet secretary going to do to build that confidence among our judges? Mr McArthur is quite correct to be forensically focused on the issue of remand. If I quote one statistic at you, the remand population as of yesterday in the women's estate, for example, sits at 41 per cent. That, indeed, is the clarion call to be going further and faster. I will not repeat what I have said to colleagues earlier in the statement about the utilisation of the additional £40 million that community justice budget up to £148 million, but there is additional work going on to strengthen alternatives to remand. That is taking place with key partners across the justice sector. It is important to say that we are also seeing progress in and around bail supervision cases, but there is more to do to ensure that we have geographical consistency. Some areas in this regard are doing better than others, and we want to support those areas that need more support to achieve more. Ivan McKee, to be followed by Maggie Chapman. Last week, I met with local community group Greater Easterhouse supporting hands, Gesh, and heard about the great work that they are doing with offenders through community payback orders. That allows offenders convicted of low-level crimes and opportunity to contribute back to society in a positive way to be supported back into employment where appropriate, allowing them to continue in employment through delivering community payback at weekends. That model seems to be a very effective way of rehabilitating offenders at much lower cost and incarceration and supports local communities and residents with the opportunity to use this workforce to deliver on local projects. What scope there is to expand that programme, where risk has been appropriately assessed and how its benefits for society can be better communicated to the public? I am very grateful to Mr McKee for highlighting the good work in this area, although I am disappointed that he did not invite me to visit the local project in his constituency. I want to put on record my thanks to the Greater Easterhouse helping hands and all the work that they are doing. It is very similar to some of the work that the Cyrenians are undertaking in Falkirk in terms of supporting community payback orders and enabling people, particularly if they have employment during the week to meet their obligations at the weekend instead. The work that Mr McKee has highlighted also shows the importance of the third sector in that regard. It speaks to the cross-government, cross-society response that we need to galvanise for the sake of our criminal justice system and for the sake of safer communities. I note the forthcoming externally-led review and the cabinet secretary's acknowledgement that prison is often not the best place for people. Given the risks of violence, drug addiction, suicide and other issues associated with incarceration, how will she ensure that the review is not just to tweak around the edges of what some consider a broken system? Will she explore ways to include recommendations by Howard League Scotland in its recent submission on Scotland's prisons to the United Nations Human Rights Committee? I am grateful to Ms Chapman for her question. I think that we should also always be directly speaking with each other about the consequences and risks of a high prison population and she is right to highlight those. I am serious about this. I am in this for the gains that we can make in the short medium and longer term. That is in the interests of all the communities that we seek to serve. As I said in my statement, I want to engage with Parliamentarians around the terms of reference in this important work. I am also serious that it is not about tweaking around the edges and that I do not want us to waste time on reinventing the wheel. It is crucial that the work that we are now about to embark upon builds upon what we already know and builds upon the commissions and reviews that have already taken place. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Last month's statistic told that more than a quarter of community payback orders did not include any unpaid work. Now, the cabinet secretary has said that community justice measures need to be considered to relieve pressure on the prison estate. Can the cabinet secretary ensure us that such community justice measures will only be given in response to appropriate crimes and such sentences will include appropriate penalties? It is important that we recognise first and foremost that, when it comes to community payback orders, if we have the courage to follow the evidence, it will show that there are lower levels of reconviction in comparison to short-term prison sentences. It is also important to acknowledge that the recent publication of community justice statistics showed that the unpaid element in community payback orders is increasing, and it is the highest that it has been for a few years now. We should also recognise that, in assessing an individual for a community payback order, they will have a range of needs to address if we are going to reduce the risk that they present to the community. There are 10 potential conditions that could be put on someone who is subject to a community payback order, which will ultimately be a matter for the court whether somebody receives a community payback order, as opposed to a custodial sentence. However, we have to increase the confidence of our courts so that they have absolute assurity that community payback orders will address the needs of any saved individual. I call Jackie Dunbar to be followed by Ash Regan. Members across the Parliament should all be considering what needs to be done to reduce the prison population and to reach consensus on the issue so that it does not become a political football. Can the cabinet secretary outline further how the review of penal policy may help to achieve that while ensuring that we have policy and measures in our justice system that are fit for the 2020s and beyond? As I said in my statement, I will be writing to justice representatives from all parties. I am committed to engaging with all members across the chamber and indeed stakeholders to developing the scope of the review. We need to proceed in a structured way so that we can achieve tangible improvements. I have been very clear in my statement that I believe that the core aims of the review will be shared across the chamber, regardless of party affiliation, because I believe that we want to work together to deliver safer communities for Scotland. I am committed to doing what I can to grow that cross-party consensus and indeed to support cross-party leadership. Women are disproportionately sent to prison for short sentences and many are victims of trauma. Today, the transgender management policy replaced the interim policy, following public outcry on a double rapist being housed in the women's prison estate. The policy fails to address the grave concerns that were raised by the justice committee and by the public on the risks that might be created to female prisoners and staff. When will an impact analysis on the strategy for women in custody take place, and how will the impacts of the new transgender management policy be assessed and reported on? In terms of Ms Reagan's question, I want to put on record that she took the time to come to the Criminal Justice Committee, even though she is not a member of the Criminal Justice Committee, when I gave evidence on the very issue, along with the chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service. It is important to acknowledge that the review that took place over a year ago led to the interim procedures being put in place. That review concluded that no woman had been put at risk. In terms of the new policy, the new policy makes crystal clear, as it did in the interim policy, that should a transgender woman have a history of violence against women and girls. There are very clear criteria in the policy that they will be accommodated in the male estate. First and foremost, for me, is the protection of women who do often have an enhanced vulnerability. The new policy improves admission procedures because it acknowledges that the Scottish Prison Service, through no fault of their own, might be time poor, might be information poor, and in the absence of information, many transgender prisoners will be admitted to the male estate. Those core protections for women remain. If Ms Reagan or any other member wishes to discuss this further, I would be more than happy to do so. Thank you. That concludes the ministerial statement. We move to the next item of business. I will allow a moment or two for front benches to organise themselves.