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Thank you. That is most helpful.

Were you referring to psychiatric emergency plans or individual care plans?

I will ask one final question, then we will have to bring the session to a close. It is about where we go now. Many issues that we have discussed require to be addressed across organisations—the third sector, the public sector and, potentially, the Scottish Government. I will come to Craig Naylor first, then to Dr Chopra. How do you see that collaborative work going forward, and should it be done at Government level? You might want to just answer yes or no.

Good morning, and welcome to the 30th meeting in 2023 of the Criminal Justice Committee. We have apologies from John Swinney. I welcome Jackie Dunbar to the meeting as a committee substitute.

Our first agenda item is to decide whether to take item 5 in private. Do members agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you very much for those opening remarks. I will kick things off by picking up on your comments about management structures and wanting to see a different approach across not just Police Scotland but the whole justice system. I will reference some of the key findings in your report under the heading of leadership and vision.

For the benefit of members, I will tease out some of your points in the key findings. You say that there is

“a perception among officers that senior leaders focus”,

as you have outlined,

“on safe outcomes, seeking to minimise every possible threat, risk and harm. This is normally achieved by police officers remaining with the person in crisis until they are either accepted into the care of the NHS or a family member. This approach to organisational and reputational risk results in a lack of focus on reflection and opportunities for improvement, often to the detriment of the individual concerned.”

You go on to say that

“Police Scotland cannot wait until a review of the whole system is undertaken before developing and implementing its own mental health strategy. We believe the current situation is unsustainable.”

In the following paragraph, you say that

“Police Scotland must now develop and implement a mental health strategy and seek to understand its legal and moral position and role within the whole system”.

I think that we all understand and relate to those remarks. Will you expand on the last point about understanding the legal and moral position and help us understand what you were thinking about in those comments?

Before I bring in Katy Clark, I will pick up on the comments that you have made. I am really glad that Pauline McNeill asked a question about psychiatric emergency plans. Having been part of the review of the Grampian plan many years ago, I know about the spirit of psychiatric emergency plans in underpinning that collaborative approach to poor mental health, whatever end of the spectrum that might be.

Should we be looking to develop the role of psychiatric emergency plans to underpin all the challenges that we have been discussing today? I am interested to hear your commentary on that. Am I right in thinking that psychiatric emergency plans sit within mental health legislation? Should we be using them much more robustly?

Thank you to all of our witnesses. The session has been really informative. I am sure that we could have continued to ask questions.

That concludes the public part of our meeting. Next week, we will review the evidence that has been taken so far on the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill, consider a draft report on our pre-budget scrutiny, and consider correspondence that has been received about deaths in custody and about the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018.

Thank you—that is a really helpful update.

I have a couple of supplementary questions that I might come back to later if we have time, but first I will open up the session to members. I will bring in Rona Mackay and then Fulton MacGregor.

I will bring in Fulton MacGregor and then Sharon Dowey.

Our next item of business is to continue to take evidence on the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill. I remind members that we are at stage 1 of the committee’s scrutiny of the bill. Today, we will focus on parts 1 to 3 of the bill.

I am pleased to welcome to the meeting the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs, Angela Constance, and Scottish Government officials. Heather Tully is from the criminal justice reform unit, criminal justice division; Lucy Smith is from the victims and witnesses unit, criminal justice division; Simon Stockwell is from the family law policy unit, civil law and legal system division; and Kirsty Anderson is a solicitor in the legal directorate.

I refer members to papers 1 and 2. I intend to allow around 90 minutes for this session.

I invite the cabinet secretary to make an opening statement.