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A range of measures are under way, and that point is under consideration. Secure care is more appropriate for 16 and 17-year-olds, as I have mentioned. The environment is age appropriate and child centred, with focused work to address the child’s specific behaviours. As I have said, a therapeutic and educational setting can help to lead children to healthier development and better outcomes, and it can decrease the likelihood of future offending.

Secure care is the right setting to better support children who require to be deprived of their liberty in order to address their underlying needs and the causes of their behaviours and to help them to reintegrate, to recover, to rehabilitate and to desist. That, in turn, will reduce the number of future victims and will benefit society as a whole.

Children are not mini-adults. A child’s propensity to alter their behaviour and change their path can be far greater than that of adults, as I have already mentioned this morning. Safe and trusting relationships are the absolute cornerstone of promoting children’s healthy development and positive outcomes. Through the provision of 24/7 care, the relationships that secure care staff can provide are absolutely key. That was something that the member mentioned specifically. The knowledge, skills, training and ratios of staff—there are often two staff per child—are supportive of the development of such relationships.

Staff in secure care centres must be registered and qualified in relation to care and education. The care-based, child-centred ethos and environment that secure care affords are supported by the centres, which are registered, monitored and inspected by the Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland.

I hope that that goes some way towards answering the member’s question.

No—that would be its opinion.

I am sorry, Mr Doris—I missed the beginning of your question.

Before court proceedings in which a suspected offence involves children, those children, including victims and witnesses, will benefit from automatic reporting restrictions. A court can currently dispense with reporting restrictions only if it is in the interests of justice, and the extended protection is important because the implications of a child’s being identified are similar and significant at any stage of proceedings. Identifying a child during a police investigation undermines the protection offered by the presumption of anonymity during subsequent court proceedings.

In direct response to the minister’s question—I am sorry; I mean Mr Macpherson’s question—we are considering that. I am sorry; I was thinking of a few weeks past.

We are not complacent. We understand that new investment is needed to implement the bill’s measures, as there are costs associated with them. We have worked with partners to quantify the financial memorandum, which outlines about £11 million a year of additional spend. We are listening to views that are coming forward at stage 1, and we will consider where further work can be done as scrutiny progresses. I am more than happy to keep the committee updated on that. I will appear before the Finance and Public Administration Committee next week to discuss some of the finances in more detail.

I think that you originally asked about whether the last bed approach will be increased. We do not require legislative change for that—that will be taken forward but not necessarily through the bill and its implications.

As I said, the situation tends to fluctuate. I am more than happy to write to the committee with more information on the exact costings around that as we move forward, if the committee would like that.

I can provide a brief response to that. Yes, absolutely, the Government will continue to assess any potential differences in provisions between the two bills. As noted in the policy memorandum for the bill, the Scottish Government committed in its 2022-23 programme for government to introduce a bill that will make provision granting a statutory right of automatic lifelong anonymity to complainers in sexual offence cases.

The Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill delivers on that commitment by providing an automatic lifelong right to anonymity to the victims of sexual offences and other offences of limited scope that share the same underlying concerns. It should be noted that the provisions governing restrictions on the publication of identifying information, in so far as they extend to victims of those offences in this bill and certain other limited offences, are subject to change in the future, given the planned provisions on automatic anonymity for complainers, which Mr Macpherson has referred to.

For assurance, we will continue to assess any differences in provisions between the two bills as each one continues to undergo parliamentary scrutiny.

Yes, that could certainly be considered.

If there was a suggestion that handcuffs should be used to protect the child or other people, that would be a decision for the people involved. I do not know whether I am best placed to say yes or no, because I would not be dealing with the incident, but I can understand that there might be instances in which restraint would be necessary. However, we would want to ensure that that was the case only in extreme or exceptional circumstances and that it was done appropriately.