Seòmar agus comataidhean

That is really helpful and hugely important, as you pointed out.

Thank you. That was reassuring.

In its response to the call for evidence, Crisis said that it would be helpful for the Scottish Government to set out a

“vision statement to outline the ... outcomes”

from the prevention

“agenda, and how it envisages”

the duties working

“in practice”,

as it would lead to a shared understanding and enable better scrutiny. Do you agree that there is a need for such a statement? Is that something that you anticipate doing?

Our next item is our final evidence session on the Housing (Scotland) Bill at stage 1. Today, we will hear from Paul McLennan, the Minister for Housing. I welcome him and his officials from the Scottish Government. Catriona MacKean is head of the better homes division, Pamela McBride is the homelessness prevention team leader, Naeem Bhatti is head of the fuel poverty and housing standards unit, and Craig McGuffie is from legal services.

Thank you all for joining us. Minister, I believe that you would like to make a short opening statement.

It would be really helpful for the committee to get an update on that.

I thank the minister and his officials for attending the meeting. After the Parliament’s summer recess, the committee will report to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee on the evidence that we have heard. The minister has quite a list of things to come back to us on, so we look forward to being in receipt of that information after the summer recess, so that we can carry out proper scrutiny of the bill.

That concludes the public part of our meeting. We will consider the remaining items on our agenda in private.

I will bring in Katy Clark before we finish up.

We look forward to that visit.

Thank you for those opening remarks, minister. I will kick off the questioning. Given that there is a housing emergency, why is the Scottish Government pursuing legislation on homelessness prevention at this stage when it might not be implemented for another few years? Should there be a greater focus on making the existing system work and increasing housing supply to respond to the current housing emergency?

Thank you for confirming that. I meant to say on behalf of the committee that it would be helpful if we could have access to the minutes from those meetings.

Bob Doris is joining us remotely. Over to you, Bob.

Before I bring in Jeremy Balfour, I have a quick question on the back of Bob Doris’s question. It is in relation to the listed bodies and the protocol that was discussed. Would Social Security Scotland come under the list of relevant bodies as part of the ask and act duty?

Good morning, and welcome to the 21st meeting in 2024 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. We have received no apologies this morning.

Our first item of business is a decision on taking agenda item 4 in private. Do we agree to take that item in private?

Members indicated agreement.