Our next item of business is consideration of correspondence from the Scottish Government on access to court transcripts. I refer members to paper 3.
Do members have any comments on the correspondence?
It is reassuring that one of Keith Brown’s last acts in post was to instruct a pilot project to look into the possibility of providing court transcripts at least to complainers in sexual offences cases, initially. That is a good bit of progress. We should not lose sight of that, so we should ensure that what has been committed to will be put into action quickly. We should be clear as to what is happening.
Absolutely. I think that we all welcome the fact that the pilot has been proposed. That is very much a step in the right direction.
I totally welcome it. It is definitely a step in the right direction. We should let Rape Crisis Scotland, Scottish Women’s Aid and Victim Support Scotland know, because they have been quite concerned about the issue and the information will be important for them.
That is a good suggestion.
As no one else has any comments, members will note that there is a suggestion in the paper about our follow-up action. I think that we all very much welcome the moves to explore the possibility of a pilot to support access to transcripts for complainers in sexual offences cases.
I want to highlight whether it would be feasible for the delivery of a pilot to be incorporated into the committee’s stage 1 consideration of the victims, witnesses and justice reform bill, which is due to be introduced shortly. As Rona Mackay has rightly flagged, we can share correspondence appropriately with external organisations.
Unless I have missed it, I am not sure, from the correspondence, when the pilot starts and how long it will last.
You are right. We have not got that detail yet, but we can certainly ask for it.
Are members happy with the actions that are set out in the paper? We can follow up on that aspect.
Members indicated agreement.
That concludes the public part of the meeting.
11:59 Meeting continued in private until 12:32.