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Good morning. I have a question for Andy Witty on the growth of the college sector, which, 10 or 15 years ago, was very successful. Part of that success was about its responsiveness to the local economy in each area. However, that has been put under pressure, not least because of funding issues, but also because of various college mergers and so on. To what extent is the college sector as responsive as it could be to local demand for skills, which is obviously very different in the north-east compared to in the south-west or Glasgow, for example?

Thank you.

Are there shackles, other than the funding issue, that you would like to see removed?

I, too, put on record my utter admiration for CHAS, which is a wonderful group that does extraordinary work. Inherent in its submission is a concern that the staff involved would need sufficient depth of training to be able to deal with what are exceptionally difficult circumstances surrounding the support for a person who has opted for assisted dying, including family decision making. It is about the level of support. CHAS’s written submission states that the estimates do not appear to take account of the fact that the guidance development processes have to be undertaken by

“practitioners and other non-Governmental stakeholders”.

The submission flags up that the estimates might not quite match the costs that CHAS feels might have to be applied. Could you respond to that?

Do you foresee any circumstances where opportunity costs will come into play? Some staff, especially experienced staff, may have to be taken away from treating other patients to help in these difficult circumstances, whether that is in hospitals with older people, or with younger people.

Good morning, Mr McArthur. I will follow on from the question about support, particularly in relation to the voice of young people, following on from some of the comments in the CHAS submission. Naturally, the decision that we are discussing is often a very difficult one to make, particularly if the family involved has conflicting views on what should happen. When it comes to younger people, it is even more difficult. On what evidence have you based your costings on the extra support network that would be required for such situations?

When you say “shackles”, are there specific issues other than the funding problem that you would like to see changed that would free up the college sector to be more responsive?

You indicate that, on 7 January, you will publish a policy document entitled “Mitigating the two-child limit and the Scottish budget”. I assume that that prediction is based on the data that the Scottish Government would need to have from the Department for Work and Pensions being available by that time.

You said in the media that you had just a week and a day’s notice.

That is helpful. Before that time, did you have any indication that that might be in the Scottish Government’s policy?