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The report also states:

“in August 2022, the SPS implemented a moratorium where it would not impose certain service credits”.

What areas does that relate to?

I note that the report said that it would take six months to see the impact of that and whether it had been successful.

Good morning. The prisoner escort contract is managed by the SPS on behalf of the justice multiagency liaison group, which consists of the SPS, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and Police Scotland. Do you know what input those organisations in the justice multiagency liaison group had into the terms of the GEOAmey contract before it was awarded by the Scottish ministers?

The report states that

“the operating environment has changed”

since GEOAmey was awarded the contract in 2018. Is that one of the issues? Are there others? It sounds as though the ageing population and the fact that the prison population is going up are adding to the problems.

One of your key messages is that

“several actions to support improvement in GEOAmey's performance”

included

“issuing improvement notices and applying financial penalties of around £4 million”.

The report goes on to say that

“SPS is now taking more direct action including financial support to support GEOAmey to aid staff recruitment and retention”,

which seems a bit of a contradiction—the SPS is fining GEOAmey and then giving it financial support. To what extent may the application of service credits, totalling more than £4 million, have contributed to GEOAmey's claim that the contract is financially unsustainable?

I think that there was something in the press last week about staff having to pay back money for their training. Do you know whether that is still happening? Is that part of the contract for GEOAmey?

Did you say there that they are having monthly meetings?

Does that involve—

So, it is labour intensive and the money for the tasks that GEOAmey is doing is going down. Unless the contract is changed, would somebody else who took it over just have the exact same issues?

On the point that Russell Findlay raised about legislation, you seem to be doing an awful lot of work already, so is the reason for having the bill the fact that it comes with a financial memorandum that will give you resources to be able to implement it?