Ms Deirdre Malone:

I will deal with the question about bail supports and services. I have brought along a document on social research. It is a Scottish Government document about the use of supervised bail in Scotland which sets out that scheme in some detail. I am happy to leave that with the committee.

In short, concerning that scheme, the substantive difference is that it does not ask those on remand who perhaps had a chaotic lifestyle or an addiction simply to turn up at an office, sign something and go off again. It was a set of meetings with a tone similar to a meeting with a probation officer. If they were admitting the offence, and it may not be the case, they spoke about any issues within their lives that they felt had contributed to offending behaviour in this instance or that could contribute to further offending behaviour. They could be things like employment, bereavement, counselling, addiction or mental health. The idea was that it was a wrap-around service which dealt with people in their given situation at the time and ensured their time on remand was used in the best way possible to make certain they turned up for court. At the end of the day the justice system wants people to turn up for court in order that justice can be served, whether that results in an acquittal or a conviction.

The crucial thing was that they were looking not just at the symptoms and warehousing people until their cases came to court but also looking at what could be done in the interim, while respecting the presumption of innocence, to work with those people in their given situations to make the court system more effective. Ultimately, it would save money for the taxpayer because that is what all those things added up to. It is an attractive package because not only is it socially effective in dealing with the issue but also it addresses public concerns about people turning up and not offending when on bail. This is one example of many and I am happy to share the rest of the research with the committee. That was the qualitative difference between simply turning up to a police station and having an active engagement with something that was quite positive.