Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you, Clare. I invite Angela O’Hagan to make an opening statement.

Thank you, Angela. I will move swiftly on to Heather Williams.

Thank you, Heather. Angela, do you have a view?

Thanks, Angela. Colleagues will be coming back to drill down further into answers and responses. Clare Gallagher, did you have anything further to add? In a moment, I will bring in Paul O’Kane, who will continue this line of questioning, so unless there is something that you definitely want to add now, you will probably get an opportunity with my colleague Paul O’Kane.

Thank you, Clare. I will bring in Professor O’Hagan.

Who would you like to direct that to?

Karen, is there anything else that you wish to pursue?

Thank you.

There will be plenty of opportunity for Heather Williams to comment. The witnesses are segueing their answers into different areas, so we will just go along with that.

That discussion was mainly about participation. I will move us on to the topic of transparency. The witnesses have already spoken about transparency in their opening statements and in their answers. I want to focus on the fact that both stakeholders and the committee made several recommendations last year on how the equality and fairer Scotland budget statement could be improved.

Changes have been made to the statement this year, including the removal of detail on how the impact of spending might have changed. It would be interesting to know what your views are on those changes. Do they increase or reduce transparency? I will come to Heather Williams first.

Thank you for that, Clare. You are right to highlight the challenges that exist around intersectionality. On the other side of that is silo working, and many people have grappled for a long time with incorporating one and breaking down the other.

That brings us nicely to the area of accountability and I will bring in my colleague Maggie Chapman.