Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you for that helpful clarification. I will call Russell Findlay next. A number of members are interested in sticking with the issue of conducting court business by electronic means, so I will bring in Russell and then Rona Mackay.

We will have to bring the session to a close. Members had one or two other questions that they wanted to ask, but time is against us.

I thank Kenny Donnelly and David Fraser for joining us. You have undertaken to provide a number of bits of follow-up information. That is helpful—we appreciate it.

We will take a short break to allow for a changeover of witnesses.

Welcome back. Our next item of business is our final evidence session on the justice provisions in the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill.

I am pleased to welcome to today’s meeting Keith Brown, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans, who is attending in person along with Scottish Government officials Jeff Gibbons, from the criminal justice division, and Louise Miller, from the legal directorate. Officials attending online are Steven MacGregor, from the Cabinet, Parliament and governance division; Jennifer Stoddart, from the community justice division; and Jo-Anne Tinto, from the legal directorate. We very much appreciate the time that you are taking to join us this morning.

I intend to allow around an hour for questions and answers. As usual, I ask for those to be succinct. I invite the cabinet secretary to make some brief opening remarks.

Very quickly.

Apologies—I did not realise that you were waiting to come in, Fulton.

That is helpful, Mr Purdie. Rona Mackay has some final questions.

I apologise again to Fulton MacGregor, who I will bring in now.

That is perfect. Thank you, cabinet secretary, and Ms Dalrymple.

I bring the public part of the meeting to a close. We now move into private.

In that case, I will bring in Rona Mackay.

Before Rona Mackay asks the committee’s final questions, cabinet secretary, I just want to pick up on what you said about self-isolation and some of the measures that are required in response to that. According to Scottish Prison Service statistics from a couple of days ago, 1,040 prisoners are self-isolating. In the context of the overall prison population, that figure seems quite high. Does that present additional challenges for the day-to-day running of prisons? Perhaps Mr Purdie will pick that up.