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I know that Tumay Forster wants to come in on that as well.

Thanks, Marsha. When my Women’s Aid group in North Ayrshire had an issue with two women with no recourse to public funds, we decided to take them into refuge, but we had no income for nearly a year in that situation. That is not a sustainable situation for Women’s Aid groups across the country.

Eilidh, could you or Laura Tomson answer that?

Laura Tomson would like to come in on that point.

I see that Foysol Choudhury has put his question in the chat. If anybody can have a look at that and answer him that would be fantastic.

One thing that we did ask about specifically but which was mentioned several times is the equally safe strategy. I would be interested in people submitting some answers to the question about what we have achieved in the last five years with that strategy. Where have we not hit the mark and what needs to change with this refresh that we are going through? We have heard a lot of things about the strategy today, but it would be helpful if you could write to us specifically on that question.

Marsha Scott, were you putting your hand up to speak or were you just saying you will do that?

We continue to take evidence on domestic abuse and violence against women and girls. The format of this session will be the same as that for the previous panel. I ask members to direct their questions to a specific witness. If witnesses are going to come in on a point, they should add new information. Please remember that we can take additional evidence from you in writing afterwards if you feel that there is something that needs to be covered.

I welcome our new panel. I know that we are having some technical difficulties with Alison Davis, who is chief executive officer of Saheliya—I hope that I said that right. We will keep an eye on that and see whether she is able to join us. Carolyn Fox McKay is head of operations at Girlguiding Scotland; Mariam Ahmed is chief executive officer at Amina Muslim Women’s Resource Centre; and Tumay Forster is outreach service team leader at Shakti Women’s Aid.

I hope that you all had a chance to listen to the previous evidence session and that you have an idea of the issues that we have already been highlighting. Obviously, we are keen to hear your perspectives on them.

This morning, we are looking at three themes: the background and context of the whole situation around violence against women and girls; prevention; and front-line services and funding. I will bring in my colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy to start on the first theme.

Thank you for that, Emma and Carolyn. I will now bring Marie McNair in; she joins us remotely. She will be followed by Stephanie Callaghan, who is in the room.

Foysol Choudhury joins us remotely.

That brings us to the end of our questions. I hope that you and your organisations will be able to assist the committee again when we look at outputs from the strategic funding review of national and local services that is to be undertaken over the year and which will look at where root-and-branch reform is needed. The funding of front-line services and all the other issues that have been raised this morning are very important.

Thank you so much for your contributions this morning. Again, please follow up in writing on anything that you think that we need to know, and, specifically, on Miles Briggs’s point about interpreters.

That concludes the public part of the meeting. At next week’s meeting we will hear from the UK Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, Chloe Smith MP.

Thank you. Pam Duncan-Glancy has another question, and we have other questions to come—still on theme 1—from Jeremy Balfour, Foysol Choudhury and Emma Roddick. It is difficult, because we all want to hear what you have to say and you all want to get everything out, but it would be helpful if you could keep your answers succinct.