Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you very much for those responses. We are doing work on the local governance review; perhaps we will need you to come back and speak to us more about that. What you have highlighted connects to the work on the new deal for local government. You spoke earlier in your evidence about parity and how to get there. You made some interesting points about who is willing to take the steps that are required.

Your evidence has been very helpful—indeed, it has helped to create a broader context for the evidence from our previous panels.

Agenda item 3 is evidence on draft regulations from Tom Arthur, the Minister for Public Finance, Planning and Community Wealth. Mr Arthur is joined by Scottish Government officials James Messis, who is the policy team leader, and Stephen Rees, who is a solicitor in the legal directorate. I welcome you all to the meeting and invite the minister to make an opening statement.

Anna wants to come in next.

Thanks, Annie. We move on to the theme of community empowerment. The questions are from Mark Griffin, who joins us online.

For our second panel, we are joined in the room by Kevin Anderson, who is service lead for policy performance and community planning at South Ayrshire Council; Susan McCardie, who is community planning officer at South Ayrshire Council; Lee Haxton, who is community planning team lead at Perth and Kinross Council; and Fiona Robertson, who is head of culture and communities service at Perth and Kinross Council. We are joined online by Anna Whelan, who is service manager for strategy and partnership at Orkney Islands Council.

I welcome our witnesses to the meeting. As I mentioned to the first panel, we will try to direct our questions to a specific witness where possible, but if you would like to come in, please indicate that to me or the clerks. Anna, as you are appearing virtually, please do that by putting an R in the chat function. There is no need for the witnesses to manually turn their microphones on and off, as we will do that automatically.

We will start with questions from Annie Wells.

Our last theme is on national and local leadership.

Michelle Crombie has indicated that she wants to come in.

Thanks for that response.

It seems, from the three LOIPs and locality plans that I have heard about, that the process is a living, breathing one that you are very much keen to engage with and really make work. It is not something that was just handed out after the 2015 act—it is something that you really want to keep alive.

Our next theme, which is on measuring impact, will be introduced by Marie McNair.

Thanks. Shaw Anderson, would you like to speak about the methods and processes in your community planning partnership for developing LOIPs and locality plans?

To what level do you imagine communities will be involved in that agenda setting as you go forward with that work?