The First Minister:

Those are all excellent questions from Pauline McNeill, which I will try to address. If there is further information that the justice secretary can send to her I will ensure that that happens. On overcrowding in our prisons, I do not disagree a jot with what Pauline McNeill said. Our prison population is far too high, so a number of efforts are being made try to reduce it. Our numbers in remand are far too high, as are our numbers in the female prison population. The justice secretary and I have spoken about a range of actions over a number of months to try to reduce the pressures. Those are not a silver bullet, as Pauline McNeill would understand, but we can take a range of actions. I agree with her that reducing the prison population is necessary. On the actions that we are taking in relation to weapons and contraband in prisons, the justice secretary will furnish the member with further details, but we are investing in technology such as rapid scan machines, body scanners and so on to try to detect the contraband that is coming into our prisons.

The last point that I make to Pauline McNeill is that she is absolutely right to say that we must place value on those who work in our prisons. That is why I was pleased that the latest pay proposal was overwhelmingly accepted by the SPS partner trade unions. It is a two-year deal that delivers a salary increase of 10 per cent for the majority of staff, with those on the lowest salaries benefiting from a rise of more than 12 per cent over the period of the pay award. I believe that we should all continue to praise the efforts of our prison staff up and down the country for the fantastic work that they do.