Seòmar agus comataidhean

I want to note, for the benefit of the Official Report, that the Scottish Conservatives voted against the proposed cuts to the community payback order disposals—and, I think, rightly so.

I want to address an elephant in the room that has been present in previous committee meetings with previous cabinet secretaries and which will no doubt be the source of endless conversation as we move forward: the endemic problem of drugs in our prisons. The statistics speak for themselves. In 2007, around 200 prisoners were identified as having a drug problem in our prison service; last year, the figure was 2,200. I know that to be true, because on our visit last week to HMP Edinburgh, two prisoners spoke frankly to me about the matter. I hope that we can be just as frank today about the problem. One of the prisoners said that it was easier to get drugs inside prison than outside of it—and I believe that to be true, too, as he had no reason to lie—and the other told me that if I wanted drugs he could get them to me in five minutes. Is that an area of concern? Is this a rising problem, or have things stabilised? Indeed, is the figure going down? What is being done to address the issue?

I have a minor and brief point to make on the second instrument, which is that the fee increase is 6 per cent but no explanatory note has been offered with regard to that level or the rationale behind it.

So, it is not the case that the Scottish Government has a problem with the principle of the extraction of data, which is perhaps how it was reported.

Thank you—that is helpful.

The problem, however, is that drugs are getting into the prison. We are not talking about wider society; we are talking about high volumes of dangerous drugs getting into prisons in the first place, and they are not being stopped. Surely that is an area of policy that we can address now. We do not need legislative change to deal with that. Of course you will have support from Parliament to address the issue. There are people dying of drug overdoses in our prisons, and there are people entering the system without addictions and leaving it with them. That sounds utterly bizarre to us.

Perhaps linked to that is the issue of suicide in prisons. The suicide rate in Scottish prisons is around 125 per 100,000—or it was last time I checked. That is around 10 times the average in wider society, so there are clearly issues around mental health in prisons and the safety of prisoners, given the context of the serious organised crime activity that is taking place in our prisons and some of the issues that have rightly been raised in the media in recent weeks. How safe are prisoners in our prisons? Are they safe enough? Is there more that can be done? What are we doing to address that shocking statistic of suicide in prison, especially among the women’s population, where the level is even higher?

If the Scottish Government—this is a further technical matter—was not happy with either the draft wording of the code of conduct or what UK ministers proposed, would you amend the legislative consent motion, or have it agreed to as drafted but subsequently issue another one? I am sorry—I am still a bit confused as to the process.

Thank you for the opening statement. The committee papers cover the topic extensively.

My first question is perhaps not for the cabinet secretary, as it is a technical question about the draft legislative consent motion. I welcome the fact that that agrees to the relevant provisions of the UK bill. Cabinet secretary, did you say that the Scottish Government does not consent to, or does not agree with consent being given to, the provisions on the extraction of data from digital devices? How does that relate to the draft motion? The motion agrees to the provisions in the UK bill—there is nothing in it that disagrees with or does not consent to anything. What would be the legislative process by which the Scottish Government would pursue not granting consent?

Perhaps I can move on, as I am not convinced that civil justice is currently part of the committee’s remit and we have a lot to cover.

You have raised some valid issues that are linked to the by-products of a two or three-year delay in a case for both the victim and the accused, especially if they are being held on remand. During our visit to HMP Edinburgh, I met a gentleman who is on remand awaiting his trial, which has been postponed twice. He has no real prospect of the trial taking place in the next six months. One could say that that person is languishing in prison having, as of yet, not been found guilty of a crime. There are clear human rights aspects to the matter and we cannot lock people up indefinitely.

What happened to the rule of thumb of maximum detention? We are talking about young lives possibly being ruined because people have been stuck in prison cells awaiting their trial for two or maybe even three years. That does not seem to be an intrinsic part of the society that we purport to have or to want.

Part of the issue is the problem of people. During our visit with the Lord President, we were told that, even with the best will in the world and all the Government money in the world, there would simply not be enough people in the system to clear the backlog. We know that the average age of those in the criminal legal profession is such that most of them will retire before the backlog is cleared. What are we doing about that?

I am sure that remand will also be raised by other members. I have a final, separate question. Why are so many calls to 101 going unanswered or being abandoned? What is being done about that?

Okay.