Seòmar agus comataidhean

Our next item is a decision on whether to take agenda items 6 and 7 in private. Are we agreed to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

I thank the minister and her officials. I have found the session to be very informative. At its heart, this is about our children and young people and their carers. My heart goes out to all the kinship carers in Scotland.

I briefly suspend the meeting to allow a panel change before we move on to the next item.

Good morning, and welcome to the 28th meeting of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee in 2023. We have received no apologies.

We have had a change in committee membership. Under agenda item 1, I welcome to the committee John Mason, who replaces James Dornan. I thank James for his valued contribution to the committee.

I invite John Mason to declare any relevant interests.

I will declare an interest as well. I, too, was a local councillor, for South Lanarkshire, from 2017 to 2021.

Welcome back. Our next item is the first evidence session on the Scottish Employment Injuries Advisory Council Bill—the SEIAC bill, for short. This member’s bill was introduced by Mark Griffin on 8 June 2023 and is currently at stage 1. The bill seeks to establish a new body—the Scottish employment injuries advisory council, or SEIAC—to provide expertise about support for people who can no longer work because of workplace injury or disease.

SEIAC would have three functions. It would replace the Scottish Commission on Social Security’s role in reporting on draft regulations for employment injuries assistance; report to the Parliament and ministers on any matter relevant to employment injuries assistance; and carry out, commission or support research into any matter relevant to employment injuries assistance.

I welcome our panel for the first evidence session on the bill, who join us remotely: Dr Lesley Rushton, chair of the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, and Dr Mark Simpson, interim co-chair of the Scottish Commission on Social Security. Thank you for accepting our invitation.

I have a few points to mention about the format of the meeting before we start. When answering questions, please wait until I or members have said your name before speaking. Do not feel that you have to answer every question; it is okay if you have nothing new to add to what others have said. Please allow our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn your microphones on before you start to speak. You can indicate with an R in the chat box in Zoom if you wish to come in on a question. I ask everyone to keep questions and answers as concise as possible.

I invite members to ask questions in turn, and I remind everybody that the questions for this panel should be purely on the context and setting of the bill. I invite John Mason to ask the first few questions.

I invite Roz McCall to ask a supplementary question, then I will bring in Bob Doris.

I want to touch on one thing in relation to the safe consumption rooms and the pilot scheme, then I will move on to the national specification.

One of the recommendations from the Drug Deaths Taskforce says:

“Currently, many drug services do not operate in evenings or at weekends. We must provide emergency care 24/7 with out-of-hours referral points for people to access if needed.”

However, I note from that the pilot scheme service is available only from 9 am to 9 pm. Is that something that is being looked at, or will it be looked at in the evaluation that you touched on?

That is pretty reassuring, especially for people with addictions being signposted outwith those hours.

I turn to the national specification. The committee has heard about the difficulties that people face in accessing services. Can the minister provide an update on what is happening with the national specification and provide any details on what it will include?

That is very helpful.

Thank you, Stephanie. Does any other member have interests to declare?