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Thank you. Micheleine is chair of the Scottish Kinship Care Alliance. We also have Gill Westwood, who is manager of Peebles and District Citizens Advice Bureau, and Alison Gillies from the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland.

I hope that you all had an opportunity to tune in to the previous evidence session. If so, you will have an idea of the issues that have been highlighted.

I will again go over a few housekeeping points. Please allow our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn on your microphone before you start to speak. When you want to respond to a question, you can indicate that by putting the letter R in the dialogue box in BlueJeans or simply by putting your hand up. Everyone should check that they can see the dialogue box on the right-hand side of their screen.

I urge you all to be mindful of time. We are not too bad for time, and I will keep an eye on the time as we go through the session, but we have a lot to get through. Please do not feel that you all have to answer every question. If you have nothing to add to what others have said, it really is okay. You are also welcome to write to us after the meeting with any points that you feel have not been covered, or if you want to supply further information on any point.

I invite members to direct their questions to particular witnesses. I will again invite members to ask questions in turn. We will begin with Jeremy Balfour.

Gill Westwood and Micheleine Kane want to come in on those points.

I believe that Gill Westwood wanted to come in.

I reiterate that any further information that you have would be very helpful, Alison.

Sorry, Miles. Before we go on, I will just bring in Alison Gillies on that final point.

Thanks, Micheleine. I am sorry to have to interrupt you but we are running short of time, so I have to ask for succinct answers. I believe that Foysol Choudhury asked another question but, before I move on to that, Alison Gillies wants to come in.

Sorry, Micheleine, could you wrap up? Carry on—I know that you are in the middle of that point—but I ask you to wrap up quickly.

I apologise that we did not follow up on a couple of points from my colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy’s questions regarding involvement in the national allowance discussions and which agency got the contract. If the witnesses could follow up in writing on those points, that would be great.

I apologise that we have run short on time. It has been a really interesting and informative session. I thank all our witnesses very much. I know that the issue is extremely emotive and important, so they should be assured that their responses and testimonies will help to inform our work on the matter.

That concludes the public part of the meeting. At next week’s meeting, we will take evidence from a range of organisations that support women and girls who have experienced violence and we will consider where the focus for the prevention of violence should be.

We now move into private to consider our remaining agenda items. Members who online should leave this meeting and join via the link in their calendars.

Would you like to direct that to a particular member of the panel?

Thank you. I will bring Alison Gillies back in with a follow-up point.