Hansard

The Convener Lab

Our next petition is PE1593, by Paul Quigley on behalf of Fans Against Criminalisation, on a full review of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threateni...

Paul Quigley (Fans Against Criminalisation)

Thank you for the introduction, convener, and thanks to everyone for having us here to discuss the petition and share our concerns about the 2012 act. I will...

The Convener Lab

Thank you very much for introducing your petition. I will start by asking a question about the understanding of how the act has been implemented. FAC was set...

Paul Quigley

Yes. Even at the start, fans held protests about the legislation in stadiums across the country. For example, fans of Celtic, Rangers, Motherwell, Hearts and...

The Convener Lab

We have talked about the reason why the act was introduced. However, recently—as recently as yesterday—MSPs have lodged motions that have tried to explain th...

Jeanette Findlay (Fans Against Criminalisation)

That proposal was put forward by John Mason MSP, who has repeatedly claimed that the act is primarily about defending Catholics and the Irish community again...

The Convener Lab

In his opening comments, Paul Quigley mentioned the interpretation that has been put on the research that the Scottish Government did. When the Scottish Gove...

Paul Quigley

If you do not mind, I will pass that question to Jeanette Findlay, because I was not at the meeting with Paul Wheelhouse.

Jeanette Findlay

We had a meeting with Paul Wheelhouse before the ministerial statement was made—maybe a fortnight before it—and we made it clear that we were entirely oppose...

The Convener Lab

You have done a lot of research on the pieces of legislation that have been enacted on the issue. There have been reviews of legislation. Have you analysed t...

Paul Quigley

I do not think that we have any specific examples of legislation that has been reviewed. Our understanding was that the review would be similar to the proces...

Jeanette Findlay

It is important to note that the authors of the single piece of evidence that the Government relied on issued two statements to say that, whatever they were ...

The Convener Lab

I have one more point before I open up the discussion to committee members. Have you spoken to people who were interviewed by the University of Stirling abou...

Paul Quigley

We understand that the researchers did not think that the work would be the review of the act. As Jeanette Findlay said, the University of Stirling published...

Jeanette Findlay

The team did not interview FAC formally as part of the process until after the interim report had been produced. The report indicated that somebody from the ...

The Convener Lab

For the record, I was also interviewed by Stirling university’s team. I was not told the purpose of the interview in advance and I discovered only later that...

Jackson Carlaw Con

Surprisingly, only the federal Parliament in Switzerland has written into its articles a statutory obligation to conduct post-legislative scrutiny of the leg...

Jeanette Findlay

It is not possible from the Government figures to answer that question very directly, but I will do it as best I can. The 22 per cent rate is not a Governmen...

Paul Quigley

Jeanette has referred to the “other” category of cases, and those are likely to include instances involving swearing, as has been referred to. Quite a lot of...

Jeanette Findlay

It would be helpful for the committee to understand precisely what we mean by that. The two fans we are referring to are 18-year-olds who were chanting, “Wel...

Jackson Carlaw Con

Thank you for that. That was comprehensive and very interesting. That suggests that there is a slight lack of clarity in all this. You are here representing...

Paul Quigley

There has been a complete change in the culture of the policing regarding how football fans are treated as they go to a football match. That means that someo...

Jeanette Findlay

In terms of direct experience, like Paul, I have not been charged under the 2012 act or indeed under any other act. As you can clearly see, I am a middle-age...

Kenny MacAskill (Edinburgh Eastern) (SNP) SNP

Mr Quigley, do you accept that there are games, even in the Scottish premiership, where no police are present in the ground?

Paul Quigley

Yes, I would assume that that would be the case.

Kenny MacAskill SNP

Would it not be the case that the majority of premiership games have a limited police presence, because clubs have to pay for the cost?

Paul Quigley

Obviously, some games will be deemed to be of lesser risk, so yes.

Kenny MacAskill SNP

Do you accept that simply using the level of convictions might not be the criterion to use, because that would also have to apply to rape and sexual offences...

Paul Quigley

No, that would be entirely off topic. When you look at more of the evidence, it suggests that, as I said, cases under the act drag on much longer than other ...

Jeanette Findlay

If conviction rates are not the correct things to be looking at, you should direct that question to the Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs and h...