Prisons and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Amendment Rules 2022 (SSI 2022/194)
Our next item of business is consideration of a negative instrument. I refer members to paper 1. Do members have any questions on the content of the instrument?
I do not have any questions as such, but I want to put on record the fact that I welcome the instrument, as I am sure that we all do. I think that it is a good step forward. We should be doing all that we can to reduce, if not eliminate, the need for custody for women. There will be some circumstances in which that is not possible, but getting as close to elimination as we can get and putting in place provisions to support women who end up in custody can only be welcome.
I associate myself with what Fulton MacGregor has said. It is a development that we welcome, and we are interested in finding out a lot more about how it will work. I am happy to support the statutory instrument.
I, too, associate myself with the comments that Fulton MacGregor and Katy Clark have made. It is a welcome step forward, and the spirit of it seems to be perfectly sound.
On that basis, members are content not to make any specific recommendations to the Parliament on the instrument. I thank members for their views.
That concludes the public part of the meeting. We move into private session.
10:34 Meeting continued in private until 11:39.