Hansard

The matter was discussed at the Justice Committee on 13 November. Of course it is important to have consistent application of legislation, but legislation must be fair and equitable, and it should certainly not be trialled by The Daily Telegraph, as is the inference from the powers that the UK Government seeks to put in place.

Three powers apply to Scotland, in relation to traffic regulation orders, legal aid and the retention of biometric material. On traffic regulation orders, it is good that the local authorities will be reimbursed. On legal aid, it is great that people who are accused are to be given non-means-tested advice and assistance. Please can we extend that provision?

The issue is the retention of biometric material. The legislative consent motion states that the bill will strike “a better balance”. That better balance was not evidenced at the Justice Committee by the cabinet secretary. We heard from an official that chief officers in England and Wales have gone to the biometrics commissioner on a number of occasions to seek further retention periods—I bet that they have.

The reasons for retention are changing. The LCM tells us that biometric material is available for use for “general policing purposes”. The cabinet secretary used the term “devolved purposes”. Those are serious extensions and serious intrusions. The argument for change that we seem to be hearing is that the provisions are administratively more convenient. I am certainly not persuaded by that, not least because I believe that information will be shared and put in a UK national database—a UK national database with errors. I understand that there may have been human rights violations in relation to photographic evidence that has not been corrected.

Our obligation is to scrutinise and understand the purpose of legislation. Everyone wants to see an end to violence and the use of maximum proportionate means to address such issues. However, that approach would be underpinned by a human rights assessment, and my questions to the cabinet secretary are: has one been compiled and published and, if so, who consulted on it? Either way, the case has not been made. The Scottish Green Party will not support the motion.