 Byddwn yn fwy o'r gwirionedd o'r sefydliadau sydd yn ymddangos, ond mynd i chi'n meddwl i'ch gwirionedd fel gwaith bod nifrwys. Felly mae'n cael ei gwaith o'r fawr ac yn ddod. Fel hynny'n gwybod, mae'n gwybod i'n gwybod i'n gwybod i'r byw sydd yn ddod i'r gweithio Michael Matheson o'r cyffredinol. Mae'r gweithio yng nghymru yn ei gweithio o'r gweithio. Mae hi'n mynd i gweithio ddod i'r gweithio o'r gweithio o'r gweithio, I'll just give a few moments for the front-benchers to resume their seats. I now call on Michael Matheson, cabinet secretary. Ten minutes. I welcome this early opportunity to update Parliament following the publication today of the report on police call handling that I directed HMICS to undertake three months ago. I want to start once again at offering sincere condolences to the families of John Ewing and Lamara Bell for the tragic loss that they have suffered. I have previously highlighted in my belief that the foundations of policing are strong. This is reinforced by the latest statistics that show that recorded crime is at a 41-year low, supported by 1,000 extra officers that this Government has delivered. Of course, the credit goes to the hardworking officers and staff across Scotland who regularly put themselves into situations that many of us would not. However, there is more to be done, which is why the programme for government set out a series of measures to strengthen policing. In September, I held a summit to support the further development of local scrutiny and over 80 stakeholders attended. The chair of the Scottish Police Authority has already begun his review of police governance, and that is on track to report in March 2016. We will shortly embark on a refresh of the strategic police priorities, giving communities the chance to have their say. The process to appoint a new chief constable is also well advanced, and the chair of the Scottish Police Authority has set out a clear expectation that the new chief will put a strong focus on addressing issues highlighted in the recent staff survey. I want to spend my time today focusing on the HMICS report that was published this morning, and I thank Her Majesty's Inspector Derek Penman and his staff for their work. This comprehensive piece of work has involved more engagement than any previous HMICS review. It includes a public online questionnaire, an audit of calls and more than 85 interviews and 34 group discussions with police officers and staff. Police Scotland Contact, Command and Control centres manage 500,999 calls and 3.24 million 101 calls per year. The HMICS report provides a number of welcome assurances. Staff levels are now stabilised at Bill St Glenn, Motherwell and Govern, and staff are committed to providing a good service to the public. The grading, prioritisation and dispatch of officers works well for emergency and high priority calls. Risk and vulnerability assessment is strong within the area control environment. New training is now in place for all new staff and the interim ICT solution in place are fit for purpose. The report contains 30 recommendations and Police Scotland has assured me that they will implement them all. The report confirms that significant progress has already been made but gives a clear direction to the SPA and Police Scotland where further improvements are needed. Those include in governance and programme management, staff communication and training, technology and in quality assurance. I will deal with each of them in turn. Firstly, the report contains a series of criticisms of programme management and governance in place around the restructure programme. Well performance is now stabilised. It is essential that those issues are addressed before the remaining phases of the change programme are progressed. I have discussed this with Andrew Flanagan, the chair of the SPA and Police Scotland. They have confirmed that independent experts will be brought in to provide strong assurance before any decision is considered regarding the implementation of proposed changes to Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness centres. Police Scotland will establish a reference group of senior independent change and call handling professionals who will provide on-going oversight and advice as the restructuring process progresses. The report also highlights concerns about how staff expertise was captured in designing the change. It also echoes findings from the Police Scotland staff survey around communication and engagement. I have made clear to Police Scotland my expectations around that recommendation and my strong conviction that investment in staff is as important, if not more important than investment in systems. To address that, Police Scotland has confirmed that it will establish a programme dedicated to shaping the future of C3 and that will support clear and transparent engagement with all affected staff from here on. I am also encouraged that Police Scotland has now put in place a training programme for all new entrants that will improve consistency across the country. Moving on to technology, the report concludes that the interim solution is generally fit for purpose but poor reliability and the ability to bypass certain aspects of the system is a risk. Police Scotland plans to invest £15 million in a new IT solution, which will be a major step forward and which I am assured will be subject to the stronger programme management approach now in place. I have also been assured that Police Scotland has already put new processes in place to monitor compliance with procedures. Ensuring strong quality assurance is the final theme that I wish to touch upon. The SPA has continued since April to monitor performance on a weekly basis. In future, any dip in performance such as experienced in Bilstein Glen earlier this year will become quickly apparent and will trigger rapid intervention. The report confirms that a regional approach to call handling can deliver an effective service for communities across Scotland. The overall direction of the programme therefore remains fit for purpose, but the management of the change programme must be strengthened. In welcoming the assurances provided by the HMICS report on the quality of customer service called handling and grading, I want to make sure that the standards are maintained and the improvements being implemented by Police Scotland deliver the required improvements. I therefore asked the HMICS to undertake a further programme of unannounced visits to call centres across the country. That will begin with immediate effect and will be on-going until the restructuring is complete. I have requested that the outcome of those visits is reported back to Police Scotland, the SPA and to myself, clearly identifying any actions that need to be addressed. The report recognises that the Scottish Government acted swiftly on the recommendation in the interim report by making £1.4 million of new money available. That has already supported an active recruitment campaign in the north, which has attracted a significant level of interest. New money is also being used to deliver improved system reliability. I want to close by stressing once again this Government's commitment to ensuring that the public can have confidence in police, contact, command and control functions. That is why I directed the HMICS to undertake a review and why I have sought at the earliest opportunity to update Parliament on its final report. The report includes some hard messages for Police Scotland, and I have been assured that all 30 of the recommendations will be accepted and actioned by them. The report provides confidence that staffing levels have stabilised in the east and west and calls are being answered and actioned. The new training is in place for all new staff and recruitment to support the next stages of restructure in the north is actively under way. HMICS has provided assurance around the ability of a regional model and both the SPA and Police Scotland to ensure independent checks are in place to monitor contact, command and control from here on and oversee the next stages of the restructure. As I said in September, there are challenges, but the fundamentals of our police service are sound. The actions that I have set out today will build on those fundamentals to deliver a stronger service. Be assured, Presiding Officer, that this Government will continue to work tirelessly to strengthen policing in Scotland even further. The cabinet secretary will now take questions on issues raised in his statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions after which we move to next site of business. It would be helpful if members wished to ask a question where to press a request-to-speak button now. The minister has already expressed his condolences to the families of John Mule and Lamarra Bell. I know that that is shared by all of us across the chamber. I am advised that the case is now a live investigation and I will therefore take no other references to the particular circumstances of the tragic case. Questions should therefore relate to the report on police call handling and the minister's statement. I am grateful to the cabinet secretary for sight of the statement prior to this session. Even in the language of management speak and acronyms, the HMIC report is damning. The report refers to weaknesses on 20 occasions. Two years since Police Scotland was formed, we are still seeing systemic failures in the important aspects of policing. The report boasts of savings of £1.8 million on policing while submitting the force had to spend an additional £1.4 million on overtime. This is a massive failure in strategic management. The report uses the word assurance on 103 occasions but we have heard so many assurances on policing that have come to nothing. The litany of failures listed in the report are extraordinary. IT systems offering only basic functionality with questionable stability. A lack of resources for front-line staff, weak local management, inadequate oversight of call centre personalisation, the narrow approach to the scrutiny of major projects by SPA and Police Scotland, no framework to measure stated benefits, key staff on the project board lacking experience in training, a lack of staff and those who are there reporting low morale. 41 per cent of officers and civilian staff responded to the HMIC survey and spoke negatively about the 101 service. We need so many improvements. On 12 July this year, the cabinet secretary blamed the M9 tragedy on an individual failure, rather than a lack of resources. We now know that this is completely false. Mr Pearson, can we just get to the question? Will he now apologise to the Bell and Yule families? Cabinet Secretary, would you like to address the other points of Mr Pearson's statement? Mr Pearson made reference to a number of points within the report. The important issue is that the very reason for directing HMICS to undertake this review was in order to provide us with assurance of the process that Police Scotland had in place in managing the change around the call centres. The 30 recommendations that are now set out in the report are absolutely key. We will wait until the minister finishes his section then. I will take your point of order, Mr Findlay. They are absolutely key to making sure that the lessons from the management of this particular area of the restructure are learned and that these mistakes are not made again. What I think is now important is that Police Scotland implements every aspect of the recommendations that are set out by HMICS. In order to make sure that that has been taken forward, is that there are no further steps within the reform programme and the restructuring of the call centres, it is taking place until all of the necessary assurances have been put in place. That will be checked not only by the SPA but also by HMICS before there are any further steps taken forward in this particular area of restructuring. What I am determined to make sure is that they build on the progress that they have made in recent months in improving the situation within their call centres to make sure that the public can have confidence when they contact Police Scotland that their call will be dealt with appropriately and as quickly and effectively as possible. Mr Findlay. Those are very, very important issues that every one of us has constituents speaking to us about. The minister has just had longer to reply to Mr Pearson than Mr Pearson had to ask his question, and he did not have the opportunity to finish it. I would hope that we could be a bit more tolerant in the chamber and allow the lead spokesman for the opposition to have his say in which, after all, are extremely serious matters. Mr Findlay, I am well aware of the seriousness of those matters. Every opposition spokesperson knows how long it is that they are expected to speak, and that is 1 minute 30. The reason I stopped Mr Pearson from going further was that I had only moments before explicitly said that I wanted no references to that particular tragic case because it is a live issue. Now we move on to Margaret Mitchell. Ms Mitchell, 1 minute. Thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement. This is a report full of management speak, which nonetheless reveals a system in chaos summed up by one of the key findings, namely, the current C3 performance framework that lacks detail on quality of service, cost and outcomes. That deficiency has resulted in a huge disconnect between what is happening in practice and what should be happening in theory through what should be stressed, absolutely no fault of the call handlers themselves. The report is peppered with overly optimistic and justifiable comments about improvements already made. My question, therefore, is this. Given that we have heard all those assurances uttered by the cabinet secretary before and restated today, what possible confidence can the general public have that a call handling in Scotland is fit for purpose to ensure that history is not repeated? Cabinet secretary. I know that members may wish to question the way in which Police Scotland has taken forward the remodelling and restructuring of its call handling system. I must say that I am somewhat surprised that a member would seek to attack the inspector of constabulary for producing such a detailed report into this matter. I do not think that that serves in anybody's interests in actually looking at this particular issue in itself. The report highlights a whole range of areas where Police Scotland has not addressed sufficiently how it should have taken forward the change, management and reassurance that was necessary in taking forward this level of change. It also identifies areas where there have been improvements made in how they are dealing with calls. I would have thought that any reasonable member would have welcomed the fact that Police Scotland has improved the way in which we are handling some of those calls. The HMICS report provides us with clear reassurance on how that has been taken forward. What we now need to do is to make sure that in areas where they have identified deficiencies in their management of this change is that they are then taken forward. However, bringing it into question the quality of inspection undertaken by the inspectorate, I do not think that does anybody a service in here. Roderick Campbell, followed by Willie Rennie. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can the cabinet secretary provide further information on the impact of the additional £1.4 million of funding provided to Police Scotland following the interim report of HMICS? Cabinet secretary. One of the actions that we took at the interim report that was published in September was to provide immediately additional financial support to Police Scotland in order to allow them to take forward the interim recommendation that has been set out by HMICS at that particular point. That supported Police Scotland and was able to accelerate the recruitment of staff in Dundee as well as increasing the number of staff that they have within their virtual service centre in anticipation of the additional workload that will deal with the future change within the system. That has also allowed them to take forward some further work around providing stability around their IT system as well. What I would now expect is for that work to continue to make progress. Alongside that, there has been a recruitment campaign in the north of the country that has attracted significant interest in recruitment within the Dundee area control room. It has also allowed them to provide additional staff within their virtual control room, which are based at both Glasgow, within Government Motherwell and Bilsengline. Willie Rennie, followed by Eileen Murray. It is a shocking indictment of the Scottish Government that it took tragic deaths before the problems at police call centres were taken seriously. There is no acceptance from the minister in his statement that they ignored the warnings, that they paid little heed to the complaints from hard-working staff across the country, that they brushed aside my pleas in this Parliament. That is a powerful report. Does he not regret ordering that inquiry sooner? Will he finally agree to a fuller inquiry into the whole of Police Scotland? Cabinet Secretary. I want to deal with this particular issue that Mr Rennie raised about the point that he raised within Parliament, and given the impression that no action was taken following those particular issues that were raised. I specifically raised those matters with the chief constable and with the deputy chief constable, Rose Fitzpatrick, and also the assistant chief constable, Val Thompson, who all have lead up policy responsibility in this particular area. That resulted in changes in the way in which they were managing the way in which they were taking forward the restructuring of the actual call centres. Let me just refer the member specifically to the findings within the HMICS report, where he clearly states that there has been significant action taken earlier in the year to address a number of the issues that were raised in Parliament and where concerns were raised with Police Scotland. The executive summary produced by HMICS makes particular reference to them. One of the aspects that came from that is that it was clear that those issues around poor performance identified early in 2015, this is at Paragraph 29, and that there has been, as a result of that, a stronger engagement from the SPA with oversight and evidence around those areas. The report highlights improvements that were then taken forward in internal governance in the spring and the weekly reporting that was introduced in order to address some of those issues as well. I am not saying that that was everything that was sorted and HMICS report identifies that further work is required, but it is wrong, factually wrong, to suggest that nothing happened from the point when he raised the matter. HMICS itself identifies improvements that occurred as a result of that. I welcome that and the recommendation from within the report will build on that progress in order to address those issues further. Lee Murray, followed by Christine Grahame. HMICS report states that staff engagement and consultation during the C3IR process could have been more effective, that initial levels of C3 staffing were insufficient and that the address, look-up gazetteer and Police Scotland's internal directory did not meet operational requirements. Staff in the Dumfries control room and their trade unions raised these very issues when the closure of the control room was announced in January 2014, but the previous cabinet secretary drove past and wouldn't even speak to them. So why were the views of experienced staff ignored and what has the Scottish Government learned from these mistakes? Let me deal with two issues that the member has raised, two very valid issues. The first one I want to turn to is the issue of the gazetteer, which has been highlighted in some of the difficulties that the control centres, the contact and commanding control centres are having with the police gazetteer system at the present time. What is also highlighted is that the fire service has a gazetteer system as do the ambulance service. One of his recommendations is that we should look at bringing these three systems together in order to provide a much more comprehensive system for delivering for blue light services in Scotland. That is something that I intend to make sure is now taken forward across those three blue light services. As I said in my statement, the issue around the way in which staff do not feel that they were properly engaged by Police Scotland in taking forward this reform, the way in which too much of it was also dealt with through email and through the internet, I do not think are acceptable. That is why I have made it very clear to Police Scotland that investing in staff is as if not more important than investing in IT systems in themselves. That is why I want to make sure that the issues that are highlighted in the report and the recommendations for addressing them alongside the findings from the Police Scotland staff survey are all addressed to make sure that staff are much more effectively engaged in that process and the mechanism that Police Scotland is now putting in place is to assist staff in being able to support that work in moving forward. I want to see improvements in the very areas that the member has highlighted to make sure that the valued voices of members of staff within Police Scotland get an opportunity to be heard and for their views to be listened to as well. Christine Grahame fall by Gil Paterson. Supplementary Cabinet Secretary to the issue of the Gazetteer on a recommendation 19. Can I ask him to ensure that, as a matter of urgency, a bespoke emergency services address Gazetteer for Scotland is dealt with given that paragraph 294 of the report states, quote, staff told the inspectorate that the internal directory was inaccurate, poor quality, inconsistent and of limited use, close quotes. That's some indictment, so I think this is a simple matter that should be remedied as soon as possible. Cabinet Secretary. Well, as a member will recognise, access to up-to-date information is vitally important, particularly local knowledge for those within emergency services. As the report rightly highlights, it would be prudent to consider greater collaboration and development of a purpose-built emergency gazetteer. As the report also recognises across the blue light services, there is development work taking place in different elements of our emergency services. What I will be doing is directing my officials to make sure that there is now collaboration across the blue light emergency services in Scotland in order to look at developing a Scotland-specific gazetteer service that could be used right across our emergency services in Scotland in an effective way. Gil Paterson, followed by Lewis MacDonald. Thanks very much, Presiding Officer. In September, the cabinet secretary held a summit with stakeholders to discuss the development of local scrutiny of policing. What steps will the cabinet secretary take to further strengthen local scrutiny of Scottish policing in the future? Cabinet secretary. That is an issue that has been raised with me on a number of occasions. As I set out my statement, I held a summit on scrutiny 23 September with members of the SPA at Police Scotland and local authorities. The next steps will be to explore the detail for improvements that have resulted from that particular discussion. The Scottish Government will be working over the coming months with the Scottish Police Authority, Police Scotland and our partners, particularly those within local authorities in taking those forward. The other aspect that we will be taking forward is our intention to have the national policing priorities reviewed. That will strengthen local policing and community engagement. Members of the public, communities and local police scrutiny committees will have an opportunity to discuss and develop those when we publish them in the coming weeks. Lewis MacDonald, followed by John Finnie. The cabinet secretary talked of bringing in independent experts before any step was taken to close the control rooms in Aberdeen and Inverness. Will those experts be free to recommend that the Aberdeen and Inverness control rooms should not close if they judge that that is the best way to assure a high-quality service for the future? If not, what does the term independent experts actually mean? Cabinet Secretary, what the report from HMICS does not say is that the end model that has been set out by Police Scotland should not be pursued states that it can offer the service that is intended to. What the purpose of independent experts will be is to provide a gateway review and assurance at the time when Police Scotland bring forward their final proposals for the changes in the north of the country is that they will go to independent experts to be assured that everything that is necessary in order to facilitate that change can then be taken forward. All of the assurances which are necessary are in place. The second part to that will also be is the independent expertise that will be fed into Police Scotland directly by those who have an expertise in this type of change management. The end model is still the approach that is being taken by Police Scotland. However, there will be safeguards put in place to make sure that before that final stage in the north is taken forward, the independent expertise has fed in both to Police Scotland in their final approach and also in the SPA in their consideration of that before they agree to its final sign-off. John Finnie, followed by Bruce Crawford. John Finnie, followed by Bruce Crawford. Thank you, Mr Penman, for his report and the Cabinet Secretary for every site for that report. I want to pick up on Mr McDonald's point too there because my attention was drawn to the independent experts who will be brought in to provide strong assurances and I think that language is very important. To many, myself included, that reads like decisions being made and the experts are being brought in to confirm a predetermined decision. I have to say that I read the report with further evidence in the interim report that suggested in my mind that there was a compelling need to retain Aberdeen, Inverness and Dundee. Will the cabinet secretary agree to ensure that unison are at the forefront of meaningful consultations about this with nothing predetermined? As the member will be aware, the report does not recommend that the final model, as I have already stated, should not be pursued and that it cannot deliver the type of service that Police Scotland are attending to achieve with that. The approach, the intended model, which is the end point that Police Scotland wants to get to with its call centre arrangements, is still the direction of travel that they are taking forward. What the independent expertise will put in place are the additional safeguards before any further steps can be taken forward in moving to the closure of any other call control rooms at the present time is that they will have to go through an independent process of scrutiny to be assured that all of the necessary steps have been taken before that change can actually take place. In relation to unison's point, I welcome the statement that has been issued by unison today, and disappoint others who have not welcomed the report but welcomed the report, and the progress has been made in improving the situation within the call rooms as well. What I have made very clear is that I expect good engagement to take place with all stakeholders as this process moves forward, including important stakeholders such as unison, who represent so many of the staff within our control rooms within Police Scotland. I can give them assurance that Police Scotland will be left in no doubt about the need to make sure that there is good effective engagement with the staff side in taking forward those issues. I would be grateful to know if the cabinet secretary would agree with me that any individual who raised a formal complaint about police call handling since the beginning of July should be sent a copy of the report to Police Scotland that was published this morning and offered the opportunity to discuss its contents at the appropriate juncture. That will enable the relationship between those individuals and the police to be rebuilt and re-strengthened and deepened. I think that that would go some way to helping the process to move along. I can say that HMICS has made provision to provide copies of the report to a number of individuals who had some contact with them regarding the control room with issues around the way in which Police have handled certain issues around control rooms and the dispatching of police resources. If the member is aware of any other individuals who has not received a copy of this report I would be more than happy to ensure that they receive a copy of it at the earliest opportunity. My apologies to the two members that I simply did not have time to call. The next item of business is a debate on motion number 14766 in the name of Roseanna Cunningham on the trade union bill. Members who were