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We are supportive of the aims of the bill but, as I said, we need more detail. I am concerned about the timeframe. If the bill had been introduced a year earlier, there could have been time to deal with it. However, there are only 16 weeks left in this session. The cabinet secretary’s Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill and my Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill were fully scrutinised. Some 600 amendments were lodged at stage 2 of my bill, and it took a long time to get the bill into a form that could be passed by the Parliament. All I am saying is that the bill that is before us is not a simple piece of legislation. The issues are complex. We are dealing with people’s lives here, and I feel that the bill needs more scrutiny. However, it will be up to the Parliament to decide on that.

Yes, and the Scottish Government will remain neutral ahead of the stage 1 report. We want to hear the committee’s views and recommendations after its evidence sessions, and I am looking forward to listening to the member in charge to see how she is going to address all the issues that have been raised. It is important to listen to all the evidence in order to see how the legislation can be adapted to ensure that it works and gains support. I am happy to consider what the committee recommends.

We have to look at the safety of women, and I have had discussions that potentially—

Yes. As I said in my opening statement, we are supportive of the principle, but it is about how we do it and that we get it right.

Yes.

We are currently doing our best to ensure that women are kept safe. We will not do anything or roll out anything that puts women in any further danger.

You are asking me whether the Scottish Government thinks that the international examples of criminalising the purchase of sex are working.

Our equally safe strategy, which was launched in February last year, explicitly states that prostitution is violence against women and girls, and that has helped us with our strategic approach to challenging men’s demand.

The strategy aims to challenge men’s demand and to put in place support for people with experience of commercial sexual exploitation and help them to exit if they wish to do so. It also aims to raise public and professional awareness that women with experience of selling or exchanging sex are victims of exploitation. It highlights the importance of engagement with stakeholders, including people with lived experience, to inform future policy.

Our strategic approach aims to challenge and deter men’s demand for prostitution and improve access to support for women, from crisis support through to longer-term support. That reflects the complexities of the issues that are associated with prostitution and the need for a multifaceted approach.

On the ground, we are currently working with Police Scotland to support the implementation of operation begonia, its new national approach to prostitution, which is designed to route women with experience of commercial sexual exploitation to support services as opposed to their being charged, and involves police more evidently using the powers that are currently available to them to challenge men’s demand.

Operation begonia has been going on in Aberdeen for many years; it is now operating in Dundee and Edinburgh, and in Glasgow under another name. The latest update from Police Scotland on the operation states that there have been more than 114 patrols; that 171 males have been warned and 48 charged; and that there has been in excess of 250 intelligence logs. Importantly, where women consented, 79 men have been referred to support.

That should give you an idea of what is happening. There is a lot more work going on, but that is what we are currently doing with our strategic approach.

To me, women’s safety has to be paramount. In your evidence sessions, and in the discussions that I have had, I have heard women who are currently involved in prostitution expressing genuine fear that they would become more endangered as a result of the provisions in the bill. I do not think that their voices have been in the conversation thus far, and we must have them around the table as we consider this legislation, because it will impact them. If we are to legislate, we must work together on how to do so safely, so that we do not put any women in further danger.

We need more detail on support. If this was a Government bill, you would quite rightly be scrutinising the proposal and asking for detail on how long the support would be provided, whether we would be paying for rent, council tax and childcare, what would happen if the woman chose to go back into prostitution and returned to receive support in three months’ time, and what the timescales were expected to be. Those are the kind of questions that I would expect to be able to answer as a Government minister. If it is to be good legislation that we can vote on and have confidence in, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ would need to have detail on how much it would cost and what support would be in place. At this stage, we do not have that detail.