Seòmar agus comataidhean

I ask members to confine their questions to budgetary issues. I am afraid that you are going—

Mr Lancaster, thank you for your attendance today; it has been most helpful. If there is anything you wish to follow up on, please feel free to do so in writing. The committee will also take that evidence into account.

We will take a short break to let Mr Lancaster leave before we move on to the next item.

I am aware that this is a really important topic and that there are a lot of moving parts at play, but I ask that we try to keep to time so that we can cover as much ground as possible.

I will bring in Collette Stevenson.

Before we move on, I have a quick question on the subject of estates. I am aware that an estate condition survey was being undertaken, and I think that that was due to be published or reported back on some time ago. Do you have an update on that?

I will bring in Russell Findlay, before coming to Collette Stevenson.

Let Mr Gray speak, please.

Yes, that is fine.

Do you want to ask a follow-up question, Mr MacGregor?

The next agenda item is the first in a short series of evidence-taking sessions on spending priorities in the justice sector for 2022-23. I refer members to committee papers 1 to 3.

I welcome our witnesses, whom I am delighted to see in person for a change. We have, from Police Scotland, David Page, deputy chief officer, and James Gray, chief financial officer; and, from the Scottish Police Authority, Chris Brown, acting chief executive and accountable officer. We very much appreciate your taking the time to join us this morning.

I thank the witnesses for their written submissions, which are available online. I intend to allow an hour and 15 minutes for questions and discussion.

Before we move to questions, on behalf of the committee, I put on record our best wishes to Lynn Brown, the chief executive of the Scottish Police Authority. We all wish her a speedy recovery.

I ask that members indicate to which witness they are directing their remarks. We can then open the floor to other witnesses for comments. If other witnesses wish to respond to a question, please indicate to me or the clerks that you want to come in and I will bring you in, if time permits. If you agree with what a witness is saying, there is no need to intervene to say so.

We will move directly to questions. I ask that members and our invited guests please keep their questions and comments as succinct as possible.

I plan to structure the discussion around a series of broad themes. I will start by looking at the budget requirements as we come out of the pandemic and, in particular, at what is needed to return to pre-Covid levels of working.

Police Scotland’s written submission makes specific reference to the implications for the service arising from the anticipated increase in court delivery, including in relation to witness scheduling and broader summary justice reform. In the context of budget scrutiny, I am quite interested to hear you outline that in more detail. What opportunities might there be to offset some of those costs? I am thinking in particular about the implications of the commitments on police officer time to attend court. I address that question to Mr Page and Mr Gray.