Seòmar agus comataidhean

You will be aware of the committee’s report on the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Bill, which was published this week. Earlier, you mentioned the volume of offenders who breach their bail conditions and the effect that that has on their victims. Have you had a chance to do an initial review of our in-depth report and our recommendations? Is there anything that you want to say about that, as it relates to domestic abuse?

Before I move on to get the Crown’s position, perhaps this is a good point to look at the data. I will cherry pick data for 2020-21, because it is recent. Of the 65,000 domestic abuse cases that were reported to the police, my understanding is that 1,600 crimes were recorded under DASA—I need to be careful with my terminology here, because it is very easy to confuse statistics. Of those 1,600 crimes, 1,200 charges were reported. As the convener said in her opening comments, there were proceedings against 420 individuals in 2020-21, and 383 successful convictions.

I am looking at that ratio. If you start with 65,000 incidents and under DASA have 383 convictions, although every one of those convictions is welcome to the victim, that is 0.5 per cent of the total number of incidents, which does not seem great. I know that it is a journey, and that it is a new piece of legislation. The direction of travel has been okay over the past couple of years, but that ratio seems underwhelming. What is the Crown’s role in all this?

Good morning, cabinet secretary. I have some questions about sections 47 and 48 of the 2003 act, which I believe the instrument amends or relates to.

The policy note states:

“Scottish Ministers will be able to facilitate the transfer of prisoners to and from these countries for assisting with the investigation of offences.”

That seems like quite a benign statement. First, does that agreement already exist and, if so, are you simply adding those countries to it?

Secondly, if such an agreement does not currently exist for those countries but will do after this change, I have some questions about what that will mean. At the moment, we are hosting a large number of Ukrainian refugees who have fled the war in their home country, and there have been media reports of some of them already looking to instigate proceedings with regard to crimes of war, against either Russia as a state or individuals. If any of those complainants were to make a complaint in Scotland, would this provision be required, for example, to move prisoners from Ukraine to Scotland for trial—or, indeed, vice versa, if someone had come here as a refugee but was found to be needed back home for an investigation? Would there be that kind of two-way conversation? Would it also include people held as prisoners of war? As a specific example, I am thinking about a Russian soldier in Ukraine who has been accused of a crime by someone currently in Scotland. Would this provision enable or facilitate their removal to Scotland? How would that happen?

So, it is nothing to do with extradition. That is fine. In that scenario, then, would there be a request by ministers to the Lord Advocate or would it be the other way around?

Thank you for that.

I have two short supplementary questions. The first follows on nicely from the conversation that we have just had. The best way to deal with domestic abuse is prevention, rather than cure. On that point, is the panel confident and comfortable that the delivery of what is known as Clare’s law has been effective in Scotland through the domestic violence disclosure scheme? Does Police Scotland have any statistical data on how many people have applied through that scheme for information and, in the positive, been granted information since its launch?

Secondly, are Police Scotland’s data systems up to scratch in terms of a national register that pulls together relevant information to feed into those requests?

If you have any more information on that scheme, I kindly request that you write to us with any data that you have. I would find that really helpful, as we proceed with our post-legislative scrutiny.

It would be the Crown, not ministers. Okay—thank you.

That is also worrying.

Good morning. Some of you—perhaps all of you—sat through the previous session, so you will have heard some of the issues that were raised by the organisations that support victims of domestic abuse. I want to focus on the procedural issues about how we get from the point of someone reporting an incident through to a successful conviction, and the pathway that that incident will take.

My first question is an overarching one, and I ask it only to get a feel for your views. About 20 years ago, around 33,000 domestic abuse incidents were reported to the police in Scotland each year and, 20 years later, that number has almost doubled to 65,000. There has been a lot of conversation about whether that is good, bad or indifferent. There is a school of thought that, as a result of a series of education and public awareness campaigns and a shift in social concepts, people are more willing to report incidents today than they were two decades ago and that is good news. Equally, however, there could be concern that there is an increase in incidents.

That is the issue that I tried to raise with Dr Marsha Scott. Do you have a view on that? There has been a trend, and the number has been on the rise. There was a small decrease of 1 per cent last year but, overall, the number has been rising considerably, and especially during the past seven to eight years. Clearly, that is of concern to the committee and to those involved.