Amendment 54 relates to changes that I made at stage 2 about how the pre-recording of evidence of child witnesses will operate in the sexual offences court and how it currently operates in other courts under the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. Those changes removed the distinction between children aged under 12 and children aged 12 or over, to enable the court to give due weight to the views of all children about how they would prefer to give their evidence in the sexual offences court and other criminal courts.

However, reference to the distinction remains in section 271E of the 1995 act, albeit that that is compatible with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, because it does not prevent the court from having due regard to the views of children under 12. Nevertheless, our broader policy position is that we should move away from presumptions that children of a certain age or older are able to form a view about how they wish to give evidence. Amendment 54 therefore removes that presumption while maintaining the provision in section 271E of the 1995 act that allows for the parent or guardian of a child witness to give views about how their child should give evidence.

The overall effect of amendment 54 is to allow the court to give appropriate consideration to the views of child witnesses and their parents or guardians, based on the circumstances of the case and the best interests of the child.

Amendment 163, which is a related amendment, makes the relevant changes to the long title of the bill.

I move amendment 54.