THIS week, I am preparing the East Lothian Scrutiny report for review by elected officials. This is a public document and forms part of the agenda for the Police, Fire and Community Safety Committee.

This year, the committee meeting will be on December 2 and will again be held online. The document will cover the police performance for quarter two of this year.

Police Scotland publishes management information on an annual and quarterly basis by local authority area and police division, as well as at a national level. These reports are produced to demonstrate Police Scotland’s commitment to transparency, which I welcome, and are an opportunity for elected officials to scrutinise our performance and ask questions on how we operate in East Lothian. The report details the ongoing partnership work in East Lothian to tackle the key priorities as set out in our Local Policing Plan and I encourage you to read it.

Within the report, I will detail an increase in sexual crimes and what we are doing to tackle this issue, which includes supporting victims, robustly pursuing offenders and raising awareness of this serious issue through preventative campaigns.

This week we launched the national ‘THAT GUY’ campaign. Men must take responsibility for ending sexual violence by changing their attitudes and behaviours towards women, as well as challenging those of their peers. This is our latest sexual crime prevention campaign and continues to put the cause of sexual offending where it belongs – with men.

The THAT GUY campaign builds on previous Police Scotland #GetConsent campaigns, targeting men aged 18-35 who are most likely to commit sexual offences. Its aim is to urge men to take responsibility for their actions and language to help affect a culture change to tackle sexual crime against women. The campaign features a new advert which will run on several online platforms, including social media.

On launching the new campaign our Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Graham said: “It’s time that we men reflected on our own behaviours and attitudes – and those of our friends, family and colleagues – towards women in order to prevent rape, sexual assault and harassment.

“We want all women to be free to live their lives without worrying about their safety.

“Women are not responsible for the sexual offences committed against them and should be able to go about their daily lives without worrying about being sexually harassed, assaulted or raped.

“It’s up to men to step up, to not be ‘that guy’ and to stop sexual offending before it starts.”

This week, I gave a presentation to S6 students in their modern studies class and was rightly taken to task on my approach to protecting women and girls and preventing violence of any kind against them. I gave an absolute commitment that I and Police Scotland as an organisation are absolutely committed to doing everything we can to protect women and girls. As a father of two young girls myself, I understand the concerns people have and will work tirelessly to ensure this serious issue is addressed in everything we do.