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If someone was convicted of an offence that put them on to the barred list and that conviction was overturned, would they still have to wait 10 years?

So, in the circumstances that you have just described, there is no need to change the threshold to five years. An overturned conviction would take someone off the list anyway.

I echo that. Thank you, both. That concludes our time with you today. It has been valuable. We welcome the offers that you have made to submit additional information, and we look forward to receiving it. I wish you a pleasant day.

We will suspend the meeting to allow for a change of witnesses.

Before I go to Michael Marra for our final set of questions, Mark Logan, do we have you only until about 12 o’clock?

I will ask the minister to confirm for the record that there is no risk at all attached to the change.

Our next item of business is evidence on skills: alignment with business needs. I welcome Leon Thompson, the executive director for Scotland at UK Hospitality, and Paul Mitchell, the head of employment affairs at the Scottish Building Federation.

Would Leon Thompson like to go first?

Because it is being done in other parts of the United Kingdom.

The issues that Meghan Gallacher has raised are worthy of the airing that we have given them. It is hard to understand why it is felt necessary at this point to reduce the 10 years to five, given that there are already the flexibilities that were highlighted by Lynne McMinn in her response to the question that I asked about overturned convictions. Although it is true that a variety of convictions or behaviours can result in someone being on the barred list, those who are on the list have usually committed fairly serious indiscretions in relation to children or to vulnerable or protected adults.

I am commenting as an individual member of the committee, not as its convener. I think that I am allowed to make my opinions known without prejudicing my role as chair.

And houses.