Meeting of the Parliament 17 December 2025
I absolutely agree. That is why we need to take a holistic view and ensure that everybody who supports older people has conversations to reassure those people that they will not be treated as daft or stupid and that their admissions about what happened to them will not be used as an excuse to change their care situation or anything like that. That is imperative.
Sharon Dowey, Davy Russell and other members spoke clearly about the need to ensure that Police Scotland has the resources that it needs. I want to be clear: we support investment in specialist skills, modernised systems and co-operation across borders when crime is transnational. Police Scotland, the courts and the wider justice system must be equipped for the world that we now live in, not the one that we wish still existed. That might mean having challenging conversations with some people. Policing is changing, so we cannot just do more of what we did decades ago, even if that is what some people expect or want.
As we have heard, some of our legislation will need radical updating in order to be fit for purpose. However, I will continue to sound a note of caution: cybersecurity must not become an excuse or a gateway for expanding intrusive surveillance or weakening fundamental rights. Safety that is built on fear, secrecy or overreach is not sustainable. Trust is created not by treating everyone as a potential threat, but by ensuring transparency, accountability and respect for human rights.
Several members, including Rona Mackay and Fulton MacGregor, have spoken about artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Those developments raise urgent questions not only about how crime is committed but about how power is exercised. We must ensure that new tools do not deepen existing inequalities, embed bias or create systems that are impossible to challenge or understand.
We have also heard this afternoon, from Jamie Hepburn and others, that our public services—and, indeed, many of the other services that we all rely on at different points in our lives—are targeted by different ill-intentioned actors. We must ensure that the services—and the infrastructure that they rely on—are secure and resilient; we cannot just patch systems that are already creaking under the strain of technological advancement.
The report also reminds us that responsibility cannot rest solely with individuals. Too often, people are told to be more vigilant, to be more careful and to be more cyber aware, while operating in digital environments that are designed without their safety in mind. We need stronger expectations and regulations for organisations, platforms and suppliers to build security into systems from the outset and to take responsibility when failures occur.
Cybercrime exposes the cracks in our social and economic structures. It exploits isolation, poverty, underinvestment and digital exclusion. Therefore, addressing it effectively means addressing those underlying conditions as well.
I welcome the committee’s decision to draw Parliament’s attention to these issues, and I urge the Scottish Government to respond with ambition as well as urgency. Cyber resilience must be treated as core public infrastructure. Support for small businesses, charities and local authorities must be practical and sustained, and any legislative or policy changes must be rooted firmly in human rights and social justice. The challenge before us is not simply to become more secure but to become more just. If we rise to that challenge, Scotland can lead not only in technological resilience but in showing that safety and freedom are not opposites—they are mutually reinforcing partners.
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