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Would it be possible for the committee to have a copy of that pack so that we have a better understanding of the process that complainers have to go through at the moment?

Is that the number who are in the system?

I want to pick up on the earlier discussion about take-up and people registering for the victim notification scheme. I appreciate your point that the creation of the new team will enable people to be asked more often, but has any work been done on or thought given to how people are asked whether they wish to opt in? I presume that, at the moment, they are simply asked, “Would you like to opt into the victim notification scheme?” However, asking them in a different way might lead to a different outcome.

Clearly, from what you have said, the hope is that, if people are asked more often, more of them might opt in, but if they are asked, “Would you like to be included in the scheme or not?” and they have to say, “No, I don’t” or “Yes, I do”, will that work? Is that something that you have explored? If one of the policy priorities of the scheme is to improve uptake, when we come to scrutinise whether the scheme is working, one of the main criteria that we will be looking at is whether it has increased the number of people who are getting information. Have you or your officials looked at or given any thought to that?

Are you giving an undertaking that there will be an increase in the number of times that a complainer or victim is asked whether they would like to be registered for the VNS?

So the main reason for that decision is the fact that the outcome of the review was a recommendation not to go down that path, and your focus is on implementing the review.

I am trying to understand the figures that you have provided today and how they relate to information that we were provided with previously. You said that 3,075 individuals are on the victim notification scheme. Is that correct? Reference was also made to 25 per cent of victims being on the scheme. I appreciate that there are three schemes, and there was also reference to other figures. You can correct me, but that is the information that you have given today.

I am trying to understand the gap between the number of those who are registered on the system—I appreciate what has been said about trying to increase that number—and the number of those who are notified. According to the figures that we were given previously, 477 offenders were released during the early releases in the summer, but only five victims were notified. That seems to be the pattern. The number of victims who get information on release seems to be very low. I know that you listed all the different types of notification that can be given and the different organisations that are involved, but could you confirm that, at the moment, notification levels are low? Could you outline what they are, either today or in correspondence after the meeting, so that we can understand the nature of the problem that we are trying to address?

It came from your colleague Lucy Smith.

How long is that pack? How many pages?

I hope that the convener does not mind me asking about this. Some of my amendments to the bill propose that it should be more of an opt-out scheme than an opt-in scheme, which some lobbying organisations have argued for. It would be interesting to understand whether you have looked at that, and why you seem to have taken the view that you do not wish to go down that avenue. What difference do you consider that having an opt-out scheme would make to the uptake, compared to the proposals that you are making?

I just want to understand. That is the number of people who are registered on the system, but we know that, in recent years, the number of victims who have been notified is very low. Has there been a significant increase in the number of victims who have registered in recent months?