Meeting of the Parliament 03 December 2015
First, I thank my colleague Paul Martin for raising a difficult and challenging issue. It is one that we repeatedly struggle with and find difficult to resolve.
Secondly, I thank Margaret Ann Cummings for maintaining a positive role on behalf of all victims and survivors of crimes of sexual abuse and of death at the hands of sex offenders and for reminding those of us in authority in this Parliament and the Government of the need to constantly revisit these issues and to acknowledge that we have still not found a way to get this right. It may well be that, in this world, we will never get it absolutely right, but that does not mean that we should not strive to repair the elements that we identify as having shortcomings.
A lot has been said about the MAPPA environment, and there have been many positive comments about its development over the years. I see today’s debate not as a criticism of the Government or what has gone on in the past, but as a contribution to our consideration of how best we can do things in the future.
I acknowledge that, although MAPPA has been a step change for us, we rely too heavily on the notion that it exists and take comfort from that when, in fact, we should continue to challenge what MAPPA does on our behalf. We should realise that the officers and members of the other services who contribute knowledge to it balance many stresses and anxieties as they try to manage, probably, too many demands with too few resources at their fingertips.
Behind that, too, I would like to see it acknowledged that although we have an intelligence management system in Scotland, it is not as robust and effective as it should be. I would like to hear from the cabinet secretary that he will take a second look at the way in which information technology systems operate across the public services to manage the dangerous circumstances that repeat sex offenders present to all services.
Mention was made of the global positioning system tracking systems that are available. I am told by those who manage the electronic surveillance of those who are on remand and subject to supervision that the system can be switched on at the flick of a switch. We need to face the challenge and ask whether we want to use GPS tracking. If the answer is yes, we need to get on with it sooner rather than later. If the answer is no, we need to work out what it is about the tracking system that is not available to us now.