Joe Fagan
Scottish Labour · Scotland
“I outlined the range of actions that the Government has taken with partners already and I assure Parliament that I will continue to engage regularly with justice partners and members to progress any action that helps to alleviate the pressure faced by the system.”
Scottish Parliament25 June 2026Source ↗
“She will be aware that the system in England and Wales is moving to a sentencing model of three parts, in which a third of the sentence is spent in custody, a third of it involves monitoring and a third is spent at liberty. That puts into context the situation that we are looking to set out in the consultation that I have discussed.”
Scottish Parliament25 June 2026Source ↗
“I know that the cabinet secretary has made an announcement in that regard, but it seems quite small. I think that all parties would like to see a bigger investment. Neil Gray: I hear that and I understand it.”
Scottish Parliament25 June 2026Source ↗
“In my former life as the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, I often pointed to the fact that 80 per cent of the drivers of poor health are outside the control of the health service. I do not have a similar statistic to quote for the justice system, but the figure will be very similar.”
Scottish Parliament25 June 2026Source ↗
“The theme of avoidable, preventable failure demand is a common one across our public services, whether we are debating delayed discharge, the housing emergency or the stubborn gap in healthy life expectancies. There has been a chronic implementation gap—a mismatch between the ambitions of Government and the outcomes that we achieve.”
Scottish Parliament25 June 2026Source ↗
“With the prison population at its current level, that is incredibly challenging. She spoke about capacity, but we cannot just build our way out of this situation. We need to take steps around capacity, but I am also proposing consideration of how we reduce the population.”
Scottish Parliament25 June 2026Source ↗