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I will clarify that.

It is a matter for the courts, as you would expect. My understanding is that the courts can make a restitution order separately or along with other orders—so, for example, they could impose both a fine and a restitution order.

The great benefit of restitution orders is that they support not only police officers and police staff who themselves have been assaulted in the course of their duties but other people, such as other emergency workers, or civilians, who have been assaulted when they have assisted them in the course of those duties. The restitution orders bring something additional to what is currently available to the courts.

The court can use a fine, a compensation order, a restitution order or a community or custodial sentence with respect to any case as it sees fit, whether that involves a member of the public, a police officer or an emergency services staff member.

We always think about those things. I can confidently say that that is not a concern, because the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service already has to administer financial penalties, such as fines imposed and compensation orders.

The end point that we are working towards is that it should be possible to make applications to the fund from next April. To be candid, convener, I appreciate your frustration in that regard. I should say that there was a working group that involved Police Scotland, police staff associations, trade unions and charities such as the police treatment centres. There was certainly broad consensus there, and consideration was given to the view that we would want any bureaucracy to be proportionate. We do not want to create too many hoops or hurdles, although, obviously, the financial governance aspect would need to be safeguarded.

Should the motion be agreed to, we would proceed with development of the guidance, on which we would need to consult, and we would also consider our work on the application process. To be clear, I have already seen an outline of the application process, which would take us from the court imposing a restitution order on an offender right through to the distribution of funds and the victim receiving the relevant support.

Under the legislation, the courts are under an obligation to consider an offender’s financial means and their ability to pay. As I understand your question—

As with any financial penalty, payment can be made in instalments. There is an obligation on the court to consider the offender’s means and whether they would be able to afford to make such payments.

No. It is important to note for the record that, in general, fines are not paid directly to victims. The fine income, in the first instance, rests with the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service as part of its income inflows throughout the year.

I will clarify with the committee what happens with compensation orders, which are a different form of financial penalty. However, any funds from restitution orders that are imposed by the courts go into the restitution fund—they do not go directly to victims. Organisations that support police, police staff and others can apply to the fund that is available, to enable them to support victims.

The majority of the coronavirus time limits have been expired, and we are now left with the two solemn time limits. The SSI that is in front of us today deals with the remaining two of the original seven time limits, so that journey has already commenced. I am acutely conscious that, every time that I have come to the committee to seek an extension to the coronavirus regulations, the area on which the committee has pressed me most is the remaining time limits. Of course, we have all known that the coronavirus legislation would come to an end.

The progress that has been made with the court backlog in the number of scheduled cases has reached a milestone in that fewer than 20,000 such cases remain. The committee will remember that, at its peak, the number of outstanding scheduled cases was in excess of 40,000, so the court backlog has been reduced by more than 50 per cent. Progress has been made and stakeholders—both the SCTS and the Crown Office, with which we have had extensive engagement—are content that the system will manage with that approach.

Thank you, convener, and good morning to colleagues. I will say just a few words.

The Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Act 2022 (Saving Provisions) Regulations 2025 are intended to ensure an orderly transition back to the pre-pandemic criminal procedure time limits that apply in solemn criminal cases. The regulations implement the recommendation, which this committee made in its stage 1 report on the Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Bill, to put in place saving provisions for the criminal procedure time limit extension provisions that will expire on 30 November this year.

Two time limit extension provisions remain in effect. The first is the time within which a solemn trial must commence when an accused has been remanded in custody, which was extended from 140 days to 320 days. The second is the time within which a trial must commence after an accused first appears on petition—that is, the bail time limit—which was extended from 12 months to 18 months.

The order preserves the extended time limits for any case in which an accused first appeared on petition, or was first fully committed, before the extended time limits expire on 30 November. It will avoid a situation in which the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is required either to indict a large number of cases or to seek to extend, case by case, the time limits for cases that would otherwise all become time barred on 30 November this year. The consequence of that would be the diversion of resources away from managing other court business. The order will also allow the reversion to the pre-pandemic time limits to be managed over a period of months.

The approach has been agreed with the Crown Office and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, and it is in line with the approach that was taken when the extended time limits for certain summary-only offences were expired on 30 November last year.