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Great. I just wanted to make sure that we had a reality check on the scale of the finance that is needed.

On the previous question around the lack of qualified professionals, we heard in an evidence session that Glasgow Caledonian University has a course, which is the only course in Scotland, but it is due to come to an end. I would be quite concerned about that if we need to bring on more professionals.

We also heard that people are going to England because work is moving ahead more quickly there. How do we ensure that we have a sufficient pipeline of people who can take on this work? We have this emergency bill and we are taking evidence quickly so that it can move forward but, if we do not have the professionals, we will run into a problem.

The next agenda item is to consider four negative instruments. There is no requirement for the committee to make any recommendations on negative instruments.??Do any members have any comments on them?

As there are no comments, does the committee agree that we do not wish to make any recommendations in relation to the instruments?

Members indicated agreement.

Under agenda item 2, we will take evidence on the Housing (Cladding Remediation) (Scotland) Bill from the Minister for Housing, Paul McLennan, who is joined in the room by Scottish Government officials Kate Hall, director, and Rachel Sunderland, deputy director, from the cladding remediation directorate; and Micheila West, from the legal directorate.

I welcome our witnesses to the meeting and invite the minister to make a short opening statement, after which I will turn to questions from members.

We know from what we have heard from owners and residents that one of the key challenges for them is the difficulty that they face in obtaining insurance and in selling or remortgaging their property. It is not clear from the evidence that we have heard that an approach that involves responding to the challenges of cladding alone, and not responding to the wider fire safety issues, will precipitate a change in the situation. What are your thoughts on that?

Okay. Thank you very much. We might take that further, because we maybe heard something a little different in our evidence sessions. Maybe we will highlight that in our report.

I want to respond to that a little bit. We have heard about tolerable risk, and we have heard that, at the moment, there is a pass or fail approach, but experts and others are calling for a more nuanced approach. At the moment, a building could end up being in a high-risk category, but the situation could be more nuanced. What is needed is something that has an amber category—that is how people have been referring to it. Can you talk to that a little?

It was just about the funding commitment. You pointed out that there is £41.3 million, but we visited a building for which it is estimated that about £40 million is needed to remediate it. From what you said in your previous answer, I understand that it is demand led and there will be more money coming, but, at the moment, that would be the amount for just one building. Obviously, different buildings will require different amounts.

This has been such a good session, and it is bringing up more questions. I will bring Stephanie Callaghan back in.

Thank you very much for that opening statement, minister.

As you will be aware, we have had some very useful and constructive round-table sessions on the bill, as a result of which we have questions for you.

My first question is on the scope of the bill. Owners of, and residents who live in, buildings with potentially flammable cladding have said that the bill does not address the key issue that they face, which is the lack of action to remediate fire risk in a timely manner. What reassurance can you offer that the bill will deliver speedy cladding remediation?

I want to go back to Mark Griffin’s question on the public consultation. You said that you have had extensive meetings with various stakeholders, but I did not hear you mention fire safety experts, surveyors or the people who will need to deliver the work on the ground. Have you had meetings with them?