Meeting of the Parliament 13 June 2017
I hope to reassure the member. The justice analytical services division is working on a broader range of information with respect to victims, offenders and the circumstances in which offending has occurred. Through a variety of means, including the multidisciplinary group, that will inform policy and our actions.
I will ask the Cabinet Secretary for Justice to respond directly to the member on the vulnerable persons database and local data. She is right to point out that we need to look at a variety of data. We should not forget what the Scottish social attitudes survey tells us about the progress that we are making and where we still have work to do. There is also the survey work that the Scottish Refugee Council has done.
Lord Bracadale’s work will touch on online abuse. We all have a responsibility to raise awareness of the risks and to promote safety online. We will continue to work with the UK Government and others on that. There are specific prevent duties on Scottish specified authorities in relation to their information technology solutions and filters, and there is no doubt that there is more to do.
I understand that Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft have made a commitment to work together to remove offensive material. It is important that, as a Government, we continue to pressure companies to make progress, but we must also recognise the work that we need to do in communities.