Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 14 June 2018.
The First Minister:
As Ruth Davidson has indicated in the way in which she has characterised her question, we are talking about a bill that is before Parliament for proper debate, scrutiny, discussion and, in due course, appropriate Amendment. It is, of course, the case that breaches of home detention curfew are taken seriously by the current processes. There are clear processes in place that mean that when an individual fails to comply with the conditions of their curfew and those conditions are considered to be breached, the Scottish Prison Service will revoke the individual’s licence and issue a recall order. Police Scotland is notified and will make arrangements to apprehend the prisoner. There are processes in place.
It is, however, important that we always keep those processes under review so that, when cases such as the one that we talked about last week happen—thankfully they are rare, although that offers no comfort to the family that was affected in that case—we review them properly and, if there are lessons to be learned or changes that require to be made, we take action to do that.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
