The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 808 contributions
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 25 January 2023
Katy Clark
Would David Fraser have a view on the definition? Would you want to comment publicly on that?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 25 January 2023
Katy Clark
Thank you. We have seen the submission that it has made to the Scottish Government.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
I appreciate that we are running out of time. Is Stuart Munro able to add anything to that?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
I have two questions, if that is okay, convener. The first is on the public safety test in the bill. As we know, that is simply not defined, which could cause a great deal of problems. Have you given any thought to how that test could be defined? If we were to keep it in the bill, how could we define it? I may be putting you on the spot too much now, so I would be quite happy to hear from you afterwards in writing.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
Thank you for that. Does Joanne McMillan have any thoughts on that?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
Thank you.
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
You might feel, again, that you are not able to answer my next question. We have heard about the importance of information being provided to the sheriff and the court. In the previous session, we were told that there was better provision of social workers in the courts back in the 1990s and early 2000s. That is quite anecdotal, so there might be great geographical differences in the levels of provision. Are you able to point us towards any evidence or work that has been done on the availability of that support in the courts? It is a resource issue rather than necessarily a legal issue. Do you have any experience of that?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
When somebody is already in custody for something else so that there is no possibility that they would be getting released anyway, is that perhaps an example of an exception?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
It was pointed out to us that the interests of children need to be a top priority. To what extent would you get involved in getting sufficient information about that? Would you have to refer to other agencies?
Criminal Justice Committee
Meeting date: 18 January 2023
Katy Clark
I think that the problem is that we might end up in the same place, but there might be a lot of appeals before we end up in that place.