Seòmar agus comataidhean

Even I sometimes do not understand the bills that come through—they should be much more user friendly. I thank you for your comments on that; they are much appreciated.

I am conscious that several people are making some good comments in the chat function. Unfortunately, because it is a chat, those will not go into the Official Report. I would appreciate it if people could drop us an email with those comments and we will take them on board.

I bring in Becky Duff.

We will take that on board, particularly with regard to young carers.

That brings us to the end of questions on theme 1. I invite Jeremy Balfour, who joins us online, to commence questions on theme 2.

Okay. Thank you.

Adam Stachura is head of policy and communications at Age Scotland. We also have with us Ellie Wagstaff, who is senior policy manager at Marie Curie Scotland.

Joining us online are Ruth Boyle, policy and campaigns manager at the Poverty Alliance; Allan Faulds, policy and information officer at the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland—the ALLIANCE; Heather Fisken, head of policy and research at Inclusion Scotland; Steven McAvoy, senior welfare rights adviser at Enable Scotland; and Frazer Scott, chief executive officer at Energy Action Scotland.

We have received apologies from Susan Webster, who is head of policy and campaigns at MND Scotland.

I believe that we also have with us Suzanne Munday, who is Gypsy/Traveller service lead at the Minority Ethnic Carers of People Project.

I thank you for your attendance today—you are all very welcome. I ask everyone to bear with me, as this is my first committee meeting as convener.

We have chosen a round-table format in order to facilitate a free-flowing conversation. The committee is very much in listening mode, so please feel free to indicate to me when you want to come in. If you are attending online, please pop an R in the chat box and I will bring you in.

We will cover three themes. I will kick off on theme 1 and then invite Jeremy Balfour and Paul O’Kane to introduce the second and third themes respectively. We have approximately 30 minutes in which to discuss each theme; unfortunately, however, due to changes in the committee’s membership and delayed business from previous meetings, we have slightly less time than we had anticipated.

With that in mind, we move swiftly on to theme 1, which is the effect of high inflation on disabled people and unpaid carers. We are interested in hearing more about how the extra costs of disability have been exacerbated for disabled people and unpaid carers by the cost of living crisis. It would be helpful if you could point to particular groups of people who have been most affected and perhaps share information on how people have coped. It would also be useful if you could pick up on where there are any gaps in our knowledge and let us know of any research that is being undertaken on those impacts.

Richard Meade, would you like to kick off?

Thank you for making those comments to highlight some of the issues.

I call Ellie Wagstaff.

Comments on stigma around poverty are hugely important, so thank you very much for bringing up that point.

Our next task is to choose a deputy convener. The Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish National Party are eligible for nomination as deputy convener of the committee. I nominate Gordon MacDonald for the role.

Gordon MacDonald was chosen as deputy convener.

Stephanie Millar has her hand up, so I will bring her in.

I echo what everyone else has said. We have done a brilliant piece of work in opening up the issue and listening to some of the officers who have gone through such a traumatic time in their lives.

Paragraph 9 on page 2 of the paper on policing and mental health relates to how the redesign of the scheduling system in the courts is progressing. It looks to me like Police Scotland is having to wait for some kind of response from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service. Work-life balance is a huge issue. We heard in numerous evidence sessions about the impact that time taken has on other officers’ ability to get their days off. It is huge. We need to push the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the SCTS to see how the redesign is progressing.

When we attended Glasgow Sheriff Court, there was a bit of pushback about remote access for trials. I do not know whether redesign is getting pushback, but I would be keen to find out more about that. We have just been talking about budgets. Notwithstanding police officers’ mental health, there is efficiency in a smarter way of working if officers access trials remotely.

Good morning, Linda. Thank you for coming along and sharing your story, despite the trauma that you are still experiencing. Your research is absolutely amazing, and it is heartening to hear that it might have an impact on young people who are affected by the justice system in the future. Thank you for that.

You touched on the idea of therapeutic pathways for young people who go through the justice system. I do not know whether you had the opportunity to hear it, but we have had evidence from St Mary’s Kenmure, which provides secure accommodation, about the therapeutic milieu in secure care. What could that look like? How can we check to see how well it is working for young people? Should it be regulated so that we can see how young people are progressing, especially in serious cases in which young people are transitioning to young offenders institutions? I would like to know your thoughts about what that should look like for our young people.

I have a quick follow-up, if that would be all right, convener.