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Yes. Perhaps we can also seek clarification regarding the paragraph that begins at the bottom of page 5 of the clerk’s note, under the “Justice Transformation” heading. It goes on to talk about “blue light collaborations”. I am not quite sure what that means. It seems that the Government is viring money from the police reform budget over to cross-justice reforms. Can we seek clarification on that point?

I have a suggestion on the back of Edward Mountain’s point. The use of the proxy vote was very repetitive at stage 3, so I wonder whether, initially, it could be said that someone is acting as proxy for another MSP and the constituency or region that that MSP covers, but, after that, we could maybe use a placard, for example, rather than having to constantly say something. It seemed very repetitive and it prolonged the voting process each time.

I completely agree with what Alexander said. It is a very sensitive subject. The fact that it is a pilot scheme and that this issue has cropped up means that it is an ideal situation to look at it.

Edward mentioned the notification. You could be dealing with somebody who has to go abroad to deal with a relative, so there could be time differences in addition to the need to go into hospital, so I whole-heartedly agree that we need to encompass that and deal in a respectful and dignified way with people who are dealing with relatives who are at the end of their lives.

I was literally going to make that same point about discretion. I have personal experience of when my brother died down south. Due to the complexity of the situation, it was three weeks before we could bury him. My employers at the time were fantastic and gave me three weeks off. Policies were in place—I know that local government has policies on the time that people can have off for particular relations, but there is an element of discretion. I would definitely veer towards allowing the Presiding Officer to use discretion. I note that things are very subjective.

I will pick up on resources. Professor Fergus McNeill mentioned the justice social work presence in each of the sheriffdoms. We have taken evidence that suggests that it is not always present and that there is a lack of uniformity across sheriff courts. Are you looking at those resources in the bill? How will you tackle that?

Okay. Thank you.

On recording the reasons for refusing bail, are you concerned that the parties in a case are not aware of why bail has been refused? What about the resource element of recording? Is the intended purpose of recording to ensure that we can carry out research on bail and remand? It would be great if you could elaborate on that.

Can you understand why we are trying to drill down into and analyse that kind of information? The very reason why the bill has been introduced is that remand figures are so high.

Thanks for your answer. David Fraser, do you want to comment?

That is really helpful. Thank you.