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From my experience as a councillor I say that support tends primarily to come from Shelter or other third sector organisations. A case would have to be incredibly complex to go to court. I found in almost all circumstances that Shelter had the expertise to help people.

On the point about reasonableness, the landlord would have to say what the grounds or reasons were for saying no. There is a balance, and that will be fleshed out in the detailed regulations. You are right that it is about striking that balance, but the landlord would have to give reasonable grounds for saying no.

The prisons inspectorate would look at the SHORE standards with regard to specific points around the prisons.

We are in discussions with the Scottish Housing Regulator about what that scrutiny looks like, and building on that is one of the key things. You are right that there is no point in just saying that we are trying to get improvement. How do we evaluate that? How do we monitor that? That is the important part. For example, we talked with the Prison Service about remand prisoners. What does it need to do when prisoners are released early? What do we do about that? Again, some of that is about what the prisons inspectorate does and how we work with the housing regulator. We are in discussion with them about what happens at that particular moment. I will maybe ask Catriona MacKean or Matt Howarth to comment on that particular point. We are engaging with the housing regulator to ask how we evaluate and monitor that.

Again, some of the key things will be about getting figures from the local authorities and engaging with them on a local basis about how important that is. We are in discussion with the housing regulator to make sure that the standards that we expect—and how we measure and evaluate them—will be part of the discussions going forward.

I do not know whether Catriona MacKean or Matt Howarth have anything to add on that.

You will know from dealing with people when they arrive at that point that nobody wants to be homeless. Some people arrive there very quickly for various reasons. One of the key aspects of the wider discussions that we have had with the likes of the Scottish Prison Service is how we deal with prisoners who are leaving prison. If we do not deal with that, particularly for remand prisoners, they will end up sleeping on a friend’s couch or sleeping rough. One of the key things is to avoid that situation.

It is also about trying to engage with the NHS at a local level. It is not so much about discussing stigma as it is about making sure that, in dealing with people who are at that point, we give them the respect that they deserve, which comes back to the crux of the matter. We cannot have people leaving prison and going to sleep on a friend’s couch or sleeping rough. That is why we are trying to deal with remand prisoners in a way that solves that issue by changing the period from two months to six months.

It is the same when it comes to domestic abuse. Women suffer stigma because of domestic abuse. If we identify potential homelessness in domestic abuse cases over six months rather than two months, that will allow us to deal with such situations more quickly and manage them in the best way possible. We talked about the fund to leave, which was brought in. We worked closely with Women’s Aid on giving women the ability to leave by providing them with funds. It is about building on that work and managing the situation rather than people getting into a position where they quickly become homeless. It is literally a crisis situation at that particular point. The stigma issue is dealt with as part of the whole thing. It is about trying to plan as much as possible, and moving from the two-month period to the six-month period, as well as the legal obligations, gives us the ability to do that.

We have had round-table meetings, so the subject has been discussed. We have had two or three of those, if I remember correctly. There has been direct involvement of landowners.

Yes. It has to. I return to the point that all 32 local authorities are different. We need to try to get the right approach across Scotland.

We are talking about social landlords, but we have also had discussions with the private rented sector. As members will know, hundreds of thousands of landlords are involved in the PRS, so we have met the Scottish Association of Landlords to discuss its approach and it is aware of what it needs to look at. Discussions are on-going with the broader PRS when it comes to individual landlords or landlords who have a small number of properties. However, again, we are focusing and working on that with SAL, and it knows that it needs to develop that approach.

There are a few things to say on that. The legislation itself sets out what it means to ask and to act with regard to those duties. Acting is about working just where the person is now. We had a chat with the national health service, and examples such as yours were one of the things that were raised.

One of the key things that we have to do with our NHS is talk about training and guidance. What that looks like is incredibly important, so we will continue to work on that with the NHS and with different bodies within it. It is an on-going process. When we spoke to stakeholders involved in it, the need to have the training and guidance was one of the key points that they made. During the meeting with the NHS, we talked about those discussions, what that training and guidance will look like and how we will build upon that.

Obviously, the act duty involves working with key partners. I mentioned the holistic approach, too. We obviously need to make sure that there is a process in place so that we know what that actually looks like. In that way, if someone who is in that situation comes in, people will know how to act on that. They need to ask the proper questions about whether there is a risk of homelessness, but what does the person who is acting need to do beyond that?

The training and guidance are incredibly important on that point, but—

I will bring in Catriona MacKean on that particular point, but you are right about best practice. Cyrenians does very well in the area of hospital outreach. We want to build on good practice and on the work that it has done, so we have met Cyrenians to build on what is already being done. That is really important. We have also been speaking to the change teams, who have experience in the healthcare sector, to build on what they are doing.

You are right that this is not about reinventing the wheel. Like me, you were previously a councillor, so you will know that people become homeless in different situations and have different experiences—some experiences are really good and others are not as good as they should be. The prevention duty is an attempt to build on what is already there. It is important to learn from Cyrenians and from the change teams and to build on that. When we spoke to NHS teams, one of the key things that they told us was about building on the protocols. This is not about starting anew. We are building on existing good practice and protocols.

I will ask Catriona MacKean to talk about the particular case that you mentioned. If she cannot, I will get back to you on that point. You are right that this is about building on existing good practice to ensure that people have a much more uniform experience that is better than it has been previously.

I have mentioned the change teams, who have direct experience of what you are asking about and are there at the start of the process. There were also the task and finish groups, which included people with lived experience.

We are very much listening to people with lived experience. Indeed, that is the most important part. Yes, we are asking about the legal duties on the NHS, the Scottish Prison Service and others, but this is all about whether we are providing the service that is needed for people who are at risk of homelessness.

I come back to the point that, previously, there was a mixed approach. If someone had the necessary training or guidance, the procedure would be in place and people would be dealt with earlier—but it was all dependent on that. We are trying to give legal certainty to the likes of the NHS and the Scottish Prison Service, but we are also looking at the training and guidance aspects and are working in partnership with those organisations to ensure that our reach goes as far as it can, that people get identified at an early stage and that the organisations ask and act, as part of their duties, and then pass people on, whether through referrals or whatever.

All of this has been happening very much through the change teams and through working with the likes of Cyrenians, which deals with such issues, too. We are taking into account lived experience, as it is incredibly important.