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Ben Macpherson is next, then other members want to come back in with follow-up questions.

I want to ask the very last question, which is on an issue that has received a wee bit of media coverage recently: live facial recognition technology. Has there been any proposal that work on that be taken forward? Would that require a budget allocation? Has that already been factored into your innovation and technology budgeting? Can you give us an update on that? It would be interesting if you could share that.

Thank you for that.

In my opening question to the chief constable, we looked at the benefit of multiyear funding and the three-year plan in the context of spend to save, if you like, and the long-term efficiencies that an investment in capital allocation can bring across a range of different aspects of Police Scotland. I take it that you would be supportive of that.

That was very helpful—thank you for that. Ben Macpherson, do you have a supplementary question?

I will bring the session to a close with a final area of questioning, which again comes back to the capital budget. During an evidence session with you all last year, reference was made to planned slippage in managing the capital programme. In essence, that involved allocating more money than was available but assuming that there would be slippage at some point. Is that practice still relied on, what are your views on it and is it a sustainable approach?

I want to come in on something that we spoke about with the earlier witnesses, which is inefficiencies across the criminal justice system that impact on police staffing and budgets. We spoke about that in the context of court time. In addition to the work that Police Scotland is doing with other parts of the sector, I am interested in hearing from you a wee bit more detail on how you are supporting the effort to pull out the inefficiencies in respect of court time or, indeed, other challenges.

That is helpful. I move to other members, because I know that there is a lot to cover and our time is limited.

I want to come in on the back of one of Ben Macpherson’s questions, on borrowing powers. James Gray, you gave a helpful answer and a bit more detail on the on-going discussions with officials and, in your written evidence, you quoted a figure of £200 million that you would be looking to borrow. Has there been any discussion about the practicalities of that? How would it work? Who would you be borrowing from, and who would cover risk if there was a default? What about interest payments? I am thinking more of the practicalities. Have you reached that point yet?

Thank you very much. That brings this evidence session to a close. I thank all our panel members. We will have a short suspension to allow for a changeover of witnesses.

Our next witnesses are representatives of the Scottish Police Authority. I welcome Martyn Evans, the chair; Ms Lynn Brown, the chief executive; and Ms Fiona Douglas, the director of forensic services.

I intend to allow around about 60 minutes for the evidence session. Martyn, I will ask you the opening question to set the scene before we move to questions from members.

This morning, the committee has been listening to evidence from Police Scotland, but what does the SPA consider to be the main financial challenges that Police Scotland and your organisation face? What is the position with regard to the SPA’s advice to the Scottish Government on the budget resource that is needed for policing, given the scenarios that the Scottish Government has asked Police Scotland to model?