 Riker, draot h� yn Gwyddian boxes 갑자기. Cymae ychwanegledd yn Ramen, neu Machrydanedd yきたgal. Wil hynny sydd wedi happeningotfa unrhyw i hyn ystod yn fwy oherwydd i fy nfawr ac yn gis애gaeth Iraws Sierra, os rydym ni i bod llingechkillnigan i ni o gfaith ph unused. villages yn eisteddfiaeth iв Mr Aj CHEERING o hyd yswath yn yn drwrs iawn ac hynny ynidianod, Een succeedd wedi meddwlol yn trerose edgesllawr. Riker ystod yn g выглядiedd yn hynny. Stars??? In July of 2015, I directed her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary to undertake an independent assurance review of the operation systems and control division within Police Scotland. That review resulted in 30 recommendations for improvement, and the inspector has worked closely with Police Scotland and the SPA to implement the wide-ranging changes in that period since. In January 2017, HMICS published an update report, which indicated good progress, and I'm pleased to confirm that a further final report has been published today, which again shows improvement. Indeed, HMICS has confirmed this morning that all 30 of the recommendations relating to its initial assurance review have now been discharged. In doing so, the inspector has commended the police service for the considerable priority that it has rightly attached to this work. I think that it is important that we too recognise the efforts of all those involved. As a result of those efforts, Police Scotland has delivered a revised, stabilised staffing model for police call handling, ensiwrd the service has the right number of people at the right time to manage the demands that it faces, and improved approach to training, ensuring that those same individuals have the skills that they need to support those members of the public who are seeking assistance, often in the most distressing and high-risk circumstances, and improved stability in key ICT infrastructure and systems, giving call handlers the tools that they need to deliver the best service that they can. The service has also implemented a number of important controls to ensure that it maintains the necessary high standards that the public expects. Those include the establishment of a new dedicated quality assurance unit for contact command and control, and the implementation of a notable instance process that allows the service to learn from those calls, which have not been handled as they should have been. That process and the calls highlighted through it have, of course, been the subject of previous exchanges in this chamber. Although the service itself would recognise such instance as the cause of regret, that process highlights the service's commitment to minimising the likelihood of those same mistakes being made again. That is key to openness, accountability and continuous improvement, and that is why it is so important. Of course, I recognise by HMICS in today's report that the reality is that we will never entirely eradicate risk when it comes to police call handling. It is a human endeavour and humans can make mistakes. In terms of broader context, over the last weekend, Police Scotland dealt with over 5,500 999 calls and roughly 16,000 calls to the 101 service. In total, the service dealt with over 16,000 individual incidents requiring some form of police response, of which 470 related to missing persons and 670 to domestic incidents. The service also dealt with 43 separate firearms incidents. I say this simply to outline the scale and complexity of policing and police call handling in Scotland today. HMICS reports that overall police call handling continues to perform well. Grades of service, that is the time taken to answer calls, is strong, with 91 per cent of 999 calls being answered within 10 seconds. The number of discontinued calls is proportionally low and continues to drop. Upwards of 94 per cent of those members of the public who contact Police Scotland over the phone are satisfied with the service that they receive. Benchmarking Police Scotland's call handling against that of other forces is not straightforward. The service has worked to identify alternative ways to assess the quality of the service that it provides. To that end, in February of this year, the service secured formal accreditation from the Customer Contact Association. Those achievements are down to the highly skilled and dedicated call handlers, who work on our behalf each and every day. I welcome the steps that have been taken by the service to give credit to those individuals who were recognised at Police Scotland's annual C3 award ceremony last month. As I have already touched on, those improvements have been delivered throughout a period of significant change, with far-reaching work having been undertaken to remodel Police Scotland's approach to call handling. It is clear that the effective management of that change, which has included the establishment of a single service centre to receive calls from across the country and the redesign of the service's approach to instant control, has been recognised by HMICS as a model of good practice. The adoption of robust planning and governance processes has delivered increased confidence. Although more effective communication within the C3 division has had a positive impact on the morale of staff and officers, all of them will have been affected in some shape or form. As a result, Police Scotland now has an approach to call handling that will allow the public to experience the full benefits that come from a single police service. Access and call volume can be managed more effectively, resources can be deployed more flexibly and national instance, gript in a way that is not previously possible. Of course, the hallmark of any effective organisation is its ability to continuously improve, and that is what we expect of Police Scotland going forward. The additional recommendations contained in the latest HMICS report should guide those efforts. I am reassured that they align well with the wider programme of transformation being taken forward as part of the services 2026 strategy. Good progress has been made, but more can always be done, and Police Scotland must maintain the momentum that it has now built. The services work to implement a new contact assessment model will ensure that future deployment decisions are based on a more robust understanding of risk and vulnerability. Of course, the services contact strategy will enable the public to engage with the service in a way that best meets their needs. The Scottish Government is supporting that work, including through the provision of £400,000 last year to support investment in new technology for C3. That builds on the £1.4 million that we made available to support initial improvements in call handling back in 2015. Of course, it is for the Scottish Police Authority to ensure that the necessary progress is being made in those areas. To that end, the authority is considering giving consideration to the establishment of a dedicated committee focusing on police reform and transformation, and I welcome that. That scrutiny will continue to be supported by HMICS, which will turn its attention to another critical part of the policing jigsaw in the coming year, the interface between the area control rooms and local police divisions. In closing, I would like to put on record my continuing appreciation for the work of the inspectorate and offer a particular thanks to the recently retired HM chief inspector Derek Penman for the valuable contribution that he has made. Although we can never be complacent, I am confident that our police call handlers are better placed than ever to support communities in meeting the changing threats that they face. I look forward to seeing how the improvements that I have described today can help to lead to better outcomes for the people of Scotland. We will take questions slightly later, but we are going to suspend for just over a minute and then we will mark the minute silence at half past two. We will suspend for just a minute's time. We will resume business. Can I ask those in the chamber to join me in observing one minute's silence to remember those who sadly lost their lives and were affected by the Manchester arena attack one year ago? Thank you very much. I thank colleagues and, in fact, those in the public gallery who joined us in observing minute's silence. I am now going to suspend business just for a minute or two before we resume. Thank you, colleagues. Again, if we can resume business, we have heard from the minister or the ministerial statement. We will now take questions starting with question number one from Liam Kerr. I am grateful to the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement. Firstly, let me welcome today's report and commend Police Scotland on meeting all 30 recommendations. I want to thank each and every police officer and staff member that works in the C3 division. They do a very difficult job in high-pressure circumstances. In his statement, the cabinet secretary talks of openness and accountability. Will he support calls for regular data on the number of notable incidents to be published so that we can monitor the level of mistakes and Police Scotland's progress in reducing them? Given the report note's uncertainty around investment, will he commit today that funding will be made available long-term to support the upgrading of crucial IT technology in the C3 systems? I welcome the member's recognition of the dedication of the staff within Police Scotland's contact command and control division, who do an excellent job and work extremely hard on our behalf each and every day to keep our community safe and to provide as best a response as they can to members of the public when they contact them. In relation to the points that the member made reference to, there is a quarterly report that is provided to the SPA on police call handling, which provides that information that the member made reference to. I hope that the member would recognise, given that his colleagues have previously raised the issues around notable incidents, that the reason that the notable incident system was brought into place was one of the recommendations from HMICS in making sure that they were properly capturing data around calls that are not being handled correctly in order to use that as a way of improving and driving improvement in the service. They should be commended for doing that. Reinterpreting that information as though it is a negative for the organisation, I do not believe, is constructive. That is not to say that it should not be scrutinised and that it should not be held to account on how they are addressing issues that come from a lot of instruments' data. However, the information is provided to the SPA at the public board meeting on a quarterly basis to demonstrate how call handling is performing in Police Scotland. On the issue of uncertainty around investment, a key part of what I mentioned in my statement is the additional investment that we have provided to Police Scotland to support them in some of the ICT infrastructure that they wanted to put in place to speed up that particular process. As the member will now be aware, a number of the recommendations that have been set out by HMICS, the eight of them, which are contained in this final report, refer to wider work that sits in the next three improvement programmes that Police Scotland has already set out, the big part of which is investment in areas such as ICT. That is exactly what the Police and Reform budget is for. The £31 million that we have provided this year to help to support that type of work. We are continuing to invest in the police service to allow that type of improvement to be taken forward. I would expect to service as it goes forward to look at what future plans it requires for investment in ICT and to look at how that can be managed as part of that wider improvement work that they are undertaking in their transformation programme in the service. Daniel Johnson, to be followed by George Adam. I would like to thank the minister for advance sight of his statement. I, too, would like to welcome this report and its very useful recommendations. However, when we are talking about this matter, we cannot forget the tragic circumstances that led to its requirement. The deaths of John Newell and Lamara Bell pointed to significant shortcomings. I think that I should clearly be with their families and friends as we consider those matters. Turning to the report, I would like to highlight the recommendation on how change in policing should be managed, including through giving the SPA board members an active role in the governance of change to ensure that scrutiny takes place in public. Does the minister agree and believe that those principles should be applied in terms of the significant change that BTP integration represents? I also note the work that HMICS is taking forward in terms of the integration of area control rooms and local police divisions. Local police officers consistently point to the number of police officers available being the single biggest barrier in their ability to respond to calls. Will the review look beyond just interfaces and on to resourcing levels and how they impact on police responses? I remember that I was aware, as I made reference to the fact that the Scottish Police Authority is looking at having a committee that is specifically dedicated to transformation reform, and I welcomed that. That is an important part of accountability and transparency of the process and taking forward any reform within the police service. On the second point, on the work that HMICS is going to undertake in area control rooms and how that links in with local divisions, the member will be aware that the reason that this report has been presented to Parliament in the fashion that it is because it was directed by the Scottish Government to report to the Scottish Government. HMICS reports that, by and large, they are not directed by ministers. They are part of their own work programme that they take forward as part of their on-going assurance work. The work that will be taken forward by HMICS on area control rooms is a matter for HMICS and how it will further interrogate any information that it will become aware of during the course of that inspection will be a matter for it. Having said that, I have absolutely no doubt that if the member has some concerns about the way in which resources are being deployed by area control rooms, HMICS will be more than happy to engage with the member to hear about his concerns and the issues that he may believe that their investigation should look at to ensure that their issues are given due consideration. I encourage him to engage directly with HMICS on those matters and, no doubt, he will take them into account as he plans his work programme to look at area control rooms and how that links with local police divisions. George Adam is to be followed by Maurice Corry. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of the Constabulary in Scotland has recommended that a route map for investment in C3 ICT systems should be developed as soon as possible. Can the cabinet secretary explain further what support the Scottish Government is providing Police Scotland to allow that work to be carried forward? There is already a range of work that has been undertaken by Police Scotland to look at its existing ICT infrastructure at the last SPA board meeting. It gave an indication of the level of investment that it believes that it might be necessary as it moves forward in the coming years. That comes off the back of a recommendation that came from Audit Scotland about having future plans and how it takes forward its ICT investments. I think that it is very important that the service continues to make sure that it is looking forward on how future investment should be shaped into information technology. That includes in the C3 division. I made reference to the points around the additional monies that we have provided to support early investment in some of the work that they wanted to undertake in areas of ICT investment in the contact command and control division and some of the benefits that we have now saw as a result of that. I would expect, as they move forward, to continue that refreshing of their ICT programmes in Police Scotland. I should say that ICT is an important element of it and the work that they are doing around the new assessment model that they plan to introduce, along with the public engagement model that they are planning to take forward later this year. I suspect that we will also help to support that work in improving how they engage with the public when they contact Police Scotland. Maurice Corry, followed by Fulton MacGregor. I thank the cabinet secretary for her early sight of his statement. The HMIC report shows that, in the year 2013-14, Police Scotland's 101 number received 3.3 million calls, but in 2016-17, the last period for which we have full data, had fallen to 2.1 million calls. Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that Police Scotland has to reach out and make sure that the communities know that the 101 number is available and that, by taking people off the emergency 999 number, but still hearing their non-emergency issues on the 101 number is vital to public safety? I am sure that the member would recognise that 2.6 million calls to 101 is a significant number of calls over the course of a year. One of the areas of work that Police Scotland has taken forward is to make sure that the service is used appropriately for the right purpose. Part of the education work that has been taken forward is to make sure that the public has a greater understanding of when they should use 101 and 999, but also when they are using 101 that they are using it for police assistance. That does not require an emergency assistance, but police assistance. There have been a number of occasions, as the members will recognise, in which the 101 service has not been used appropriately. It has been used for a variety of purposes. Police Scotland has published information demonstrating the nature of how it has not been used appropriately. That change in demand is not just down to purely people using it more appropriately, but it is a greater recognition to the public about what 101 is for. Even at that, 2.6 million calls demonstrate the level of demand that the service has to meet. The public engagement programme, which Police Scotland will take forward later this year, is about how the public can engage with Police Scotland, and they are looking at a variety of different ways in which that can be achieved. People with different options do not have to be through 101, but it can be through other means as well. That will be part of a consultation exercise that will take forward over the course of the latter part of this year, which will help to improve how contact can be made with the police in a model and a way that best reflects the needs of the public. I hope that the member will be reassured by that, that Police Scotland will want to reach out and make sure that people are using their service appropriately, but that they will also want to look at the existing model to see if they can improve on it and allow the public to make contact with them in a variety of other ways other than through the 101 system. Fulton MacGregor, to be followed by Clare Baker. Fulton MacGregor, please. I will take this opportunity to remind the chamber that I am the PLO to the Justice Minister. As the cabinet secretary mentioned, the HMICS review resulted in 30 recommendations. Can the cabinet secretary advise what improvements have been made in co-handling as a direct result of those recommendations? In the course of my statement, I made reference to a number of different areas that have made improvements around how Police Scotland is taking forward a range of the work that is now carrying out within the C3 division within Police Scotland. There has been a stability and independent validation of the police modelling programme that they have now in place for staffing of the service, implementation of a new training strategy, and a new dedicated quality assurance unit for police call handling. They have adopted a new risk and vulnerability training package that has been delivered to all service centre staff. They have also invested in ICT infrastructure, which has allowed them to introduce a new single command and control and enhance their customer relation management system. They have introduced a new enhanced performance framework that draws on a wider range of measures around call handling, and they have introduced a new notable instance process, which ensures that they capture information relating to calls where lessons can be learned. That is some of the actions that have been taken forward as a result of the recommendations that are made by HMICS. That is why I expect Police Scotland to build on a momentum that they have achieved over the past couple of years to make sure that they continue to refresh and improve the way in which call handling is being taken forward in the weeks and months ahead. In the recommendations going forward, HMICS recognises the need for further work to identify and reduce failure demand, recommending a public contact strategy and a risk and vulnerability model. How will the cabinet secretary ensure not so much the public appropriate use of the 101 number, which was highlighted in the response to Maurice Corry, but public confidence in the 101 phone number, which my constituents often feel is not responsive enough, particularly when they are reporting antisocial behaviour, which may not be judged to be high risk, but it is disruptive for them and their community? As ever, when the public contact plays Scotland and if they are not satisfied with the response that they receive, there is a process for that to be escalated and to lodge a complaint with Police Scotland and for the matter to be investigated and reported to the individual where they do have concerns. There is a well-established process and a robust process for considering concerns and issues that a member of the public may have. I am sure that all MSPs have received representation from constituents at some point where we can refer them into that particular process. I also made reference to the fact that Police Scotland is also looking at introducing a new contact assessment model. Part of that work and the training for that will start later this year. That is a process that will help to evaluate risk and vulnerability much more effectively so that, when they receive calls and the information that they receive in the call, they can then use that to make a much clearer assessment of the situation. Training for that will start later this year and roll into 2019, with the benefits of that expected to start to come into focus later in 2019 and into 2020. The public contact strategy, which the Government intends to take forward, is the point that I was making to Maurice Corry about how the public can engage with Police Scotland and providing wider opportunities for them to engage in report matters to them. The consultation on that will start later this year and that will involve a whole range of different stakeholders, including the public, in having an opportunity to shape how that should be taken forward in the future. The services are very much about engaging with the public and hearing their views on how they can improve the service. A combination of the processes and systems that they have in place where people are dissatisfied alongside the additional work that they are planning to take forward will help to make sure that we address the types of concerns that Clare Baker highlighted regarding her constituents. John Finnie, to be followed by Rona Mackay. I thank the cabinet secretary for an early sight of his report, and, like others, I commend him much for the positive work that is taking place, including that that was highlighted by HMICS, and that was the training introduced to service advisers on the assessment of risk and vulnerability. However, HMICS goes on to say that it was unable to identify any tangible impact in the priority grading and response to incidents that could be attributed to that revised approach. That is picked up, cabinet secretary, in the recommendation 6 risk and vulnerability model. Will the cabinet secretary ensure that that work is prioritised, not least given the well-documented concerns about the vulnerable person's database? I think that the member raises an important point, and some of the points that I was making to Clare Baker helped to address some of the issues of concern relating to that particular recommendation. As the member will now be aware, as a result of the eight recommendations that have been made by HMICS in this report, much of that sits within the wider body of work that Police Scotland is taking forward as part of its wider reform programme and sits within the three-year strategy, which is the implementation plan that it took forward to the SPA Board fairly recently. What I can say to the member is that that continues to be a high priority, and the report recognises that for the executive team within Police Scotland. When I instructed this report, it was to make sure that we drove forward improvement in how police call handling and police contact was being managed. The unannounced inspections and visits to the contact centres that I asked HMICS to undertake were about continuing to provide that wider assurance. A combination of this work, alongside the eight recommendations that Police Scotland will now bring forward an action plan for its implementation, a number of them are already in process and have been taken forward. I believe that Police Scotland recognises that that is a key priority, and that it will continue to drive that forward. It will fill in some of the work that it does around the national database plan that it has, which is already at an advanced stage for part of it being based in Inverness and also in Government, which will provide support to operational staff who require database inquiries during the course of operations. In that work, I would expect to be completed probably into the autumn of this year, once that has been fully implemented at both the base in Inverness and in Government. Can the cabinet secretary provide more information on what will be done to ensure that call handling continues to improve to maintain high levels of public confidence? I will keep part of the way in which I expect Police Scotland. I have no doubt that the SP will want to continue to monitor how Police Scotland is carrying out call handling, and its performance will be through the quarterly update reports that will be provided to the SPA. Alongside that, HMICS will continue to look at how call handling is being managed and how it is performing as the service goes forward, and that will fill in that wider reform agenda. As the member will recognise, it is important that Police Scotland creates a culture within its organisation, which is about driving the quality of the service that it will deliver to the public. One of the issues that I believe has been addressed much more effectively by the changes that I have introduced into the C3 division is the quality assurance system that I have now put in place, the training packages that I now have, the fact that they have external audits that are provided as part of their national accreditation as well, all of which provide checks and balances around how the service is operating and the quality of the service that it is providing to the public. In that sense, I believe that the public can have greater assurance that we have much greater and more robust oversight on how Police Scotland is delivering services through their C3 division and how the public responds to those services when they contact Police Scotland. Liam McArthur is to be followed by Ben Macpherson. I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of the statement. I also pay tribute to the work that was done by Derek Penman. I also thank Chief Superintendent New-Bigging and colleagues at C3 division for hosting my visit earlier this year and for the work that is clearly borne out in this HMICS report. As part of the process of learning, the cabinet secretary now acknowledged the part played by the rushed centralisation of policing by this Government in creating the problems initially in call handling. Will he also accept that there is now growing public disquiet that three years on from the fatal crash on the M9, we are still no nearer knowing the timeframe for a fatal accident inquiry into that tragic incident? It is very clear from having directed the HMICS report assurance review into Police Scotland. I recognise the need for Police Scotland to address a number of issues around how they were handling matters through their contact command and control processes. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the oversight of the transformation of contact command and control within Police Scotland back in 2014 and 2015 should have been more robust and effective. One of the real lessons that I believe that can be learned from this particular process is to ensure that the oversight body, the SPA, has much greater assurance around this area of transformation work, which is why I welcome the new chair of the SPA's consideration of establishing a committee that will be dedicated specifically to transformation and reform within Police Scotland in order to have much more effective oversight of transformation and reform that has been taken forward by the SPA's service. The member will be aware that decisions around the matter relating to the M9 incident are a matter for the Lord Advocate as a live investigation. The member will be aware that the matter has been reported on by the PIRC to the Crown Office. The Crown Office has sought further reports on what is a complex matter around the SPA's response to that particular incident. The Lord Advocate has already stated that a fatal accident inquiry will take place. However, that fatal accident inquiry can only take place once the Crown Office has come to a decision on whether there will be any criminal prosecutions relating to that incident. Given that both of those families who were affected by that tragedy are constituents and families known to me, I am very aware of the distress and difficulties that it presents to John Yew's family and to Lamarra Bell's family. However, I can assure the member that the Crown Office is seeking to keep the family involved and informed of any progress on the matter and keeping them up to date as best they can as the investigation progresses. However, the ultimate decision in relation to any decision around the prosecution or when the fatal accident inquiry takes place is a matter for the Lord Advocate. I am sure that we will get them all in. There are still three questions to go. Ben Macpherson will be filled by Gordon Lindhurst. Can the cabinet secretary tell me what steps are being taken to increase and improve collaboration between the emergency services and other partners to strengthen the gazetteer GPS system used by police call handlers? The HMICS report considered work around the work that has been taken by Police Scotland around the Police Scotland gazetteer, a matter that Lewis MacDonald has raised with me on a number of occasions in the possibility of having a shared gazetteer across our three emergency services. We have a Scottish Fire and Rescue Gazetteer, a Scottish Ambulance Service Gazetteer and we have a Police Scotland Gazetteer, all of which operate in slightly different systems. In order to try and progress this matter, we have established the Scottish Emergency Services national collaboration strategy. One element of its work is to look at having a shared gazetteer for Scotland. As the report highlights, the Police Scotland Gazetteer has been improved and has been appropriately maintained. Full implementation of the collaboration strategy and the work that it does around possibly having a single gazetteer for emergency services in Scotland is one that the strategy will support in developing. Although I recognise that there are significant technical complications to moving to a single gazetteer and we need to take that forward in a planned fashion if that is the direction of travel and what the collaboration group recognises the right approach to take for all of our services to ensure that we can have confidence in any single gazetteer that is operated by all three of our emergency services. Gordon Lidderson, as this is a final report, can the cabinet secretary advise how the eight new recommendations will be followed through on to ensure that they are delivered expeditiously? There matters for the HMICS who will only discharge the recommendations once they have been completed by Police Scotland. Any on-going review of that work will be a matter for the HMICS to continue to ensure that appropriate work has been taken forward to have them completed. The cabinet secretary provides detail on the timescales for implementation of the new contact assessment model and public contact strategy. The timescale table for both the contact assessment model and the public contact strategy is that the public contact strategy will start later this year and the consultation exercise around that will start later this year. The contact assessment model and the training for that will start to be introduced later on this year and into 2019, with the expectation that full benefits from that will then be realised towards the end of 2019 into 2020. Work on planning for both of those is already being taken forward by Police Scotland, and both of them will start to be taken forward later in 2018. I thank the minister and members. We will move on to the next HMICS, which is a fairer Scotland for disabled people tackling the employment gap debate. We will take a few moments for the minister and the officers to change seats.