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Because the same situation could arise again in relation to Covid. We think that that is justifiable only up to 2025, if we are talking about Covid.

Why we would want to have the power on a permanent basis is a separate question. The same question could be addressed to the UK Government. I would imagine that its response would be that it is not always possible to anticipate whether it might be required to deal with a public health emergency or for some other reason. Different answers could be given as to the need for that.

The reason why we want to have the power in the current circumstances is that we do not yet know what the route path of Covid or its variants will be.

I think that it is right that we wait for the further processes that Cat Dalrymple mentioned to be gone through before we can be absolutely definitive, but if it is comfort that is being sought, I would just highlight two things. First, the fact that not one of the 285 cases in question has given rise to public protection concerns in the eyes of the experts who have looked at them is a good indicator of where we are at. Again, that is not definitive, and I am not trying to pretend that it is.

Secondly, in the light of some of the publicity that flowed from last week’s statement, I point out—and I cannot remember whether this is in our briefing or another that I have seen—LS/CMI is almost a general triaging tool. For someone who is, say, a sexual offender or who is seen as high risk to the public, because of violence, other tools as well as LS/CMI will be involved. That should provide you with reassurance.

I know that there was no time to take my opening statement, convener, but perhaps I can make a couple of other points that I highlighted in it, because I sought to address some of the questions that members, quite rightly, asked me last week in the chamber. Pauline McNeill and, I think, Jamie Greene asked about the technical nature of the update. I hope that members will see from the briefing that has been provided and from what Cat Dalrymple has said how technical the issue is, although I should say that I specifically asked for the language in the briefing for members to be as plain as possible, because it is sometimes quite difficult to understand the different aspects.

Moreover, in response to Stephen Kerr’s question last week about when all of this first came to light, I said that it was 24 January. However, the first person to see it was apparently an SPS individual on 13 January. I might have said that, too, but I certainly mentioned the 24 January date. That was when Government officials became involved and started running tests in parallel with the system. As I said last week, I was advised of the matter the previous Friday and then came to Parliament.

With regard to how quickly we came to Parliament, I would highlight a case down south that related to 400,000 prisoner or offender records, and there was no statement to the Parliament down there until after the event. I was keen to ensure that we did not do the same thing, and we therefore came to the Scottish Parliament as soon as possible. Coming back to Jamie Greene’s question, I point out that one consequence of that decision is that we do not have all the answers, because we are still working through this. We are providing as much assurance as we can—indeed, I think that the assurance that the 285 live cases have not raised any cause for public concern is pretty substantial.

There are probably one or two other questions that were asked last week that I have tried to deal with if not in the briefing then in the opening statement that I would have made. I hope that that gives some reassurance, too.

I think that I mentioned in response to a similar question from Mr Findlay after my statement last week that I hoped to be able to give him a reassuring response. I have not granted any first grant of temporary release, but it is also true that that function has been carried out for a number of years now by the justice portfolio minister—in this case, that is the Minister for Community Safety. A reconciliation of the Scottish Prison Service system and the identified affected cases has been carried out, and eight cases in which first grant of temporary release have been granted were found. All of those have been looked at again, and I can confirm that no immediate or concerning public protection risks were highlighted. However, those eight cases will be further reviewed by the risk review group, which I mentioned in the statement last week, to provide further assurance.

Yes, and I think that I have said so already. That would not happen through the bill, which relates to the pandemic, but we are actively involved in that dialogue with the judiciary. There are two routes for doing it, one of which is a practice note from the judiciary. However, that would take things only so far, and I think that it is fair to say that the judiciary’s preference would be for primary legislation.

I think that those issues are relevant, especially if we are looking to make the approach permanent, which might be possible through other legislative processes that are coming forward.

We are considering the issues. I read the evidence that was given to the committee by the Scottish Solicitors Bar Association and others, and I acknowledge some of the concerns that have been raised. I note that, a number of months ago, the Faculty of Advocates raised with us the issue of digital exclusion, which we are looking to address.

That said, on the other side of the argument, you might have heard Rhoda Grant talking yesterday about how beneficial the approach can be in domestic abuse cases and cases in rural areas.

As ever, there are arguments on both sides, and we want to take those into account, along with things that we learn from the pilot projects, before proceeding further.

It is possible that, given its powers, the judiciary could advance the approach in the meantime, through a practice note. However, for the reasons that you mention, I think that its preference would be to have legislation. There are a lot of things to work through in relation to the approach. On the surface, it seems appealing, but some people—especially those who are most closely involved in the process, such as defence representatives—have concerns that we want to address as best we can.

Some of that pre-dates my time as justice secretary. We have had a constant dialogue with all justice partners on the issue. The 16 additional courts involve court service staff, defence lawyers, prosecutorial staff, sheriffs and so on, so there has been a very big increase in their workload. We thought that providing those courts was the most effective way to tackle the backlog, and I still think that. Others might have different ideas, but we think that that is how to tackle the backlog. The decision was made following maximum consultation with justice partners. Such a radical step could not have been taken without discussion and consultation with, and the consent of, justice partners.

The prisoner release took place just before I took up office. One of the first things that I had to do on coming into office was to read voluminous tracts on public health and the framework that had to be applied to prisons.

I think that it is true to say that prisons will have learned from that. They have heard that question—it is not the first time that it has been asked—and I am sure that we would want to give the matter further thought. I think that, in some cases, there were good reasons for not testing prisoners, but each time we do something new, we want to learn from previous experience.

I believe that prisoners’ rights figure in the minds of not just governors but individual prison officers. You mentioned some of the assurances that we have on that. We have the inspector, who is able to challenge where she believes that prisoners’ rights have not been observed. As Jamie Greene has asked for, we have the assurance on transparency to ensure that, when such measures are introduced, that is logged and people know when it is done and why, as well as when the measures finish and the reasons for that.

The Prison Service has done different things to try to mitigate the impact of that. I am sure that Allister Purdie can set this out more effectively than I can—although Jamie MacQueen is the expert on the interplay between different rights—but, for example, in-cell telephony has been a big boon to prisoners. Of course, that is not without its issues, either. That shows that there has been a recognition that such extraordinary measures impact on prisoners’ rights, and we have tried to ensure that the impact has been mitigated. There are any number of checks on that. If we can increase the checks by responding to Jamie Greene’s point about transparency, we should do so.

Those are the reassurances that I would give. It might be worth hearing from Jamie MacQueen, who, like you, I am sure, is the expert on the interplay between the rights that are affected.

Your starting point was to ask whether we are listening to those concerns and taking them seriously, and we are. That speaks to the point about improvement that I made to Rona Mackay, which was that we should listen and see whether we can achieve agreement.

However, you are absolutely right that, even among defence solicitors, we see the extremes of view that you mentioned. We are not just getting different views from witnesses from different organisations; different points of view are being expressed within, say, the Law Society or the bar associations. We want to listen to see whether we can help with that. If those are the concerns of the people on the front line who are trying to be as effective as possible for their clients, we have to listen and see whether there is a way of overcoming them. If business is all virtual, it is hard to see how we could do that, but there might be exceptions.

The Government is therefore willing to listen to possible remedies, and we have a lot of good people in Government who might be able to help us to find solutions in tandem with our justice partners.

I might ask Allister Purdie to come in on this. It is certainly true, as I think that I said in the previous evidence session, that we applied additional guidance, beyond the Scottish Government guidance, through Public Health Scotland and others. There was a huge amount of provisions and guidance. That was done in recognition of the particular circumstance of prisons, which are, of necessity, confined spaces. I was not in Government when the pandemic began, but everybody was very fearful of what might happen to prisoners because of that.

Prisons will have their own necessity for taking action, and they might not always be completely aligned with the general population, which is able to take other measures. That is the general rationale for the extension.