成人快手

Skip to main content
Loading…

Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

Filter your results Hide all filters

Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 7 July 2025
Select which types of business to include


Select level of detail in results

Displaying 3527 contributions

|

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 October 2023

Audrey Nicoll

Would you like to add anything, Kate?

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 October 2023

Audrey Nicoll

We move to our second panel of witnesses, who are representatives of several organisations that represent various groups, including victims of crime or people who might be classed as vulnerable witnesses during court proceedings. I welcome Dr Louise Hill, who is head of policy, evidence and impact at Children 1st; Bill Scott, who is director of policy at Inclusion Scotland; and Graham O鈥橬eill, who is a policy manager at the Scottish Refugee Council. A warm welcome to you all.

We will have around an hour for the evidence session. As with the previous session, I will open with a general question, which I will put first to Dr Hill and then to the other witnesses, working across the room.

Can you give us your views on the pros and cons of creating the post of a victims and witnesses commissioner?

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 October 2023

Audrey Nicoll

That is a helpful opening commentary. We move to Bill Scott.

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 October 2023

Audrey Nicoll

Thank you. I will bring in Graham O鈥橬eill.

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 October 2023

Audrey Nicoll

Thank you very much indeed.

I will bring in other members now, because what you have just outlined, Marsha, is something that we are all very sensitive to. Russell Findlay is first.

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 October 2023

Audrey Nicoll

That is the sort of answer that we like.

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 4 October 2023

Audrey Nicoll

Katy Clark is online. Katy, do you want to come in? Your microphone seems to be showing as on鈥攃an you hear us?

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 27 September 2023

Audrey Nicoll

I will finish this set of questions with another question about the position of an accused person, but in relation to the pilot proposal and whether participation in the pilot scheme would be mandatory for an accused person who fell within the scope of the scheme. Might there be a problematic response to that?

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 27 September 2023

Audrey Nicoll

A very good morning, and welcome to the 24th meeting in 2023 of the Criminal Justice Committee. We have apologies from Pauline McNeill.

Our first item of business is our first evidence session on the Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill. We are joined by the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs and her Scottish Government officials, whom I welcome. Anna Donald is deputy director of the criminal justice division; Lisa McCloy is head of the criminal justice reform unit; and Nicola Guild is a solicitor in the legal directorate.

I refer members to papers 1 and 2. I intend to allow up to two hours for this session. Before we get under way, I want to say a few words about our forthcoming scrutiny of the bill.

As a committee, we are very aware that the bill is a major piece of legislation that contains a number of significant provisions. We are aware of our responsibility to take the necessary time to scrutinise it properly in a balanced manner and to hear a range of views on it. Furthermore, we want to ensure that all aspects of the bill get proper scrutiny, so we have decided to take a phased approach to our scrutiny in order to protect time for each part of the bill. Further details on that can be found on the Scottish Parliament website.

Today鈥檚 session with the cabinet secretary is a chance for us to set the scene on the bill and to hear why the Scottish Government has brought forward the proposals. In future weeks, we will move on to taking detailed evidence on the bill from a range of interested parties.

I acknowledge all the individuals and organisations that took the time to respond to our call for written views. Those responses are now published and available online.

I invite the cabinet secretary to make a short opening statement. We will then move to questions.

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 27 September 2023

Audrey Nicoll

Thank you. I will open up the discussion to members.