2. First, I would like to join others in recognising international firefighters day and in paying tribute to all those who run towards danger in order to protect their fellow citizens. In particular, our thoughts are with the family of Barry Martin, who so tragically lost his life at just 38 years old.

This morning, the Criminal Justice Committee published its review of the Government’s Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018. The act was passed by this Parliament in February 2018 to give greater protections to victims, particularly women and children, from coercion and abuse. However, today—five years on—the committee concludes that progress on implementing the changes has been far too slow. In the words of one expert who gave evidence, the experience of victims and survivors is still “unremittingly grim”.

When the 2018 act was introduced, the then justice secretary, Humza Yousaf, said that he hoped victims would be able to seek support with the confidence that the law was behind them. When so many women and children are still being failed, does the First Minister believe that his Government has lived up to that ambition?

I believe that we have, but that there is always more that we can, and should, do. I welcome the publication of the Criminal Justice Committee’s report on its post-legislative scrutiny of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018. We have taken action, not just as a Government—in fairness, there has been a collective effort by the Parliament to respond to the needs of the victims of domestic abuse. Of course, we will give careful consideration to the report’s eight recommendations before responding formally. However, I will be clear that any form of abuse is unacceptable, and I am sure that there is collective agreement on that.

The new domestic abuse offence, which has been heralded as gold standard legislation, has given more powers to police and the courts to punish the perpetrators of abuse and protect people who are at risk. However, as the committee’s report highlights, clearly, there is still more work to be done to improve the justice system’s response to domestic abuse and for survivors of domestic abuse. We will work with justice agencies to consider the recommendations.

The First Minister suggests that the ambition has been met. I suggest that he listens to and reads the testimony of victims on how they feel about the process. The act was marked as world leading but, as usual, the Scottish National Party Government is content to talk up change and settle for less. It is not just this legislation that has been neglected across our justice system: the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 has never been enforced, there is a court backlog of more than 27,000 criminal cases and there are 816 fewer police officers since 2020.

When the First Minister was justice secretary, there was a damning review of the police complaints and disciplinary system, which reported evidence of misogyny, racism and serious discrimination issues within Police Scotland. In 2020, the then justice secretary, Humza Yousaf, told the chamber that the Government would

“move at pace” in its response, and that there would be

“no dithering, nor will there be delay.”—[

Official Report

, 25 November 2020, c 37.]

However, “Newsnight” has spoken to women about the misogyny that they faced while they were working in our police force. They say that many women are too scared to speak out and that many have been forced to leave the police. Is that the decisive action that the First Minister was talking about?

The First Minister:

Decisive action has led to those court backlogs falling. The reason why the court backlogs increased so much was because of the global pandemic, and I think that we can, and should, all recognise that. Since the SNP has been in Government, decisive action has led to the lowest crime figures on record. Our resolve to fund the police and our record of doing that, ensuring that more police officers are on the beat, are good. That is why we have more police officers per head than in England and Wales.

In terms of misogyny, we are taking decisive action on the back of an excellent report by Baroness Kennedy in relation to what more we can do legislatively and as a society to tackle that. On some of the concerns that have been raised about misogyny in the police force, I know from my engagement with Chief Constable Iain Livingstone how seriously he takes that issue in policing, and I know that he has taken action to address it. The Government and the police take any concerns raised against police officers extremely seriously. When things go wrong, the police must be held to account. That is why I am pleased that some of the whistleblowing policies in relation to Police Scotland have been updated by the Scottish Police Authority, in direct response to the work that we commissioned from Dame Elish Angiolini in 2018—the review of police complaints handling, investigations and misconduct issues.

Those are the decisive actions that we have taken. Am I saying that everything is perfect? Of course not. There is more that we can do for those who serve in our police force as well as the public that we seek to serve. The Government has a good track record of tackling the issues that matter to people and keeping people safe, up and down Scotland.

I am sorry, but that is a complacent answer from the First Minister. He seems to be in denial. The fact that female police officers feel compelled to speak to the media in order to inspire change from the Government is a record of failure, not one of success or progress. There is chaos across our criminal justice system. Courts are backlogged, prisons are overcrowded and the police force is being starved of resources.

Is not the problem with the First Minister that he likes to talk big, but consistently fails to deliver? This is an incompetent and dysfunctional SNP Government which, after 16 years, has left every Scottish institution weaker. We have a justice system that too often fails victims, a transport system that too often fails communities, an education system that too often fails our children and a health service that too often fails staff and patients. Is it any wonder that, every day, more and more people are losing trust and faith in this failing SNP Government?

The First Minister:

Anas Sarwar talked about rhetoric, but I gave facts—facts that he cannot and should not avoid. In each and every department, we can look at the Government’s achievements.

In health, we have record spending of more than £19 billion to invest in the national health service in this financial year. NHS staffing is up to historically high levels. Our accident and emergency services continue to be the best-performing such services anywhere in the UK.

In education, we have not just record investment but record high numbers of school leavers who have gone on to education, employment or training. On attaining one or more passes at Scottish credit and qualifications framework level 4 or better, we have the narrowest gap on record between school leavers from the most deprived areas and school leavers from the least deprived areas.

As I said, crime is at the lowest level since 1974—the figure is down by 42 per cent under the SNP. We have the highest number of police officers at any time in comparison with when Labour was in power. We have more police officers per head than in England and Wales.

On the economy, unemployment is at record low levels. I could go on and on and on.

Although the SNP has—undoubtedly—had some of the most difficult and challenging weeks, we still enjoy incredible popular support, and Anas Sarwar is still in second place, which betrays his lack of ambition. [

Interruption

.]

The Presiding Officer:

Thank you, members.

The First Minister:

After wall-to-wall negative coverage of the SNP for five to six weeks, Anas Sarwar is happy to be in second place—that is his ambition for the Labour Party, and that is why the people of Scotland have not trusted Labour in the past 16 years to be in government.