Seòmar agus comataidhean

I agree that it needs to be a general power, because that would allow that local flexibility. Has SOLACE looked at that formally? Has it presented anything to COSLA or the Scottish Government? Would you consider doing that?

I was previously on a council for 15 years, and it was the same in that local authority.

Shona, we lost the sound at the start. Can you start again, if that is okay?

For brevity, I will ask both of my questions at the same time.

Last year’s programme for government announced the introduction of a local democracy bill within this parliamentary session, and I was just wondering what your views were on that. I also note that in the Bute house agreement with the Scottish Greens, the Scottish Government also committed to establishing a working group to oversee engagement on local government funding, including council tax. Again, I just wanted to see whether you have been involved in that process and whether you have any initial thoughts on it.

I will come to you first, David, then open it up to others, if that is okay.

Is more flexibility required so that councils can raise their own funds? We have talked about the workplace parking levy and the tourism levy, but would you like your council to be more able to look at other things that it would like to pick and propose, if required? I should probably give Euan Jardine a heads-up that I will be asking him the same question, but would you like more freedom to look at local taxes?

I mentioned the council tax. Again, do you have any other thoughts on that or on the local democracy bill in that respect? Is there anything that you have not mentioned or anything else that you would want to add with regard to our discussions?

I note your comments on the time and will try to be as quick as I can.

My first question is to Frazer Scott. I will then bring in Mark Simpson.

We have discussed the £50 payment, and I think that you have both touched on other payments that are out there in the broader context of supporting the most vulnerable people in our society. We are in the context of recession-type budgets. We also have a fixed budget in Scotland; if we take money from that budget to pay more, we—of course—need to take from another budget line. Frazer Scott mentioned targeting. In the context of the other payments that are out there, does he have any comments about how we consider it in the round and how it could be better targeted?

I have a supplementary question, which Mark Simpson can comment on as well.

Frazer Scott, the review of the Scottish welfare fund is key. That fund can be targeted by local authorities, which might pick up your points on how to get the fairest possible scheme. What are your thoughts on looking through the lens of the welfare fund, in which there is a discretionary element for local authorities to target the areas in which they know there are particular issues—for example, rural areas, where heating might be oil based? I know that Mark Simpson wants to come in, but what are your thoughts on that specific point?

You have touched on some of these issues. The report presents the data nationally. Can it be broken down into sex, age, ethnicity and disability at local authority level? That would be helpful. Can we say from the survey results which groups are most underrepresented and which groups are overrepresented? You have touched on that, but is there anything more that you would like to say? Arfan, I will come to you first.

Maria, do you want to add anything?