Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you very much, Mark.

As that was our only public business today, I close the public part of the meeting.

Good morning and welcome to the 12th meeting in 2022 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I ask all members to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent and that all notifications are turned off during the meeting.

Our substantive business for today involves consideration of two draft reports, both of which the committee previously agreed to consider in private. However, as two new committee members are attending for the first time, we are first required to meet in public so that they can declare any relevant interests. I welcome Marie McNair and Annie Wells to the committee. The first item on our agenda is for Marie and Annie to declare interests. I invite them to do so in turn.

I thank Marie and Annie for their declarations. I call Mark Griffin.

Thank you very much for that, Rosemary. We will pick up on some of the points that you have made.

I am heartened to hear you talk about a change in working practices in acknowledgement of the need to handle cases with empathy, and I think that you are absolutely right when you say that that needs space. Often, when people come into an environment to complain, they need a great deal of empathy. It seems to me that you are bringing more of that into your work, but the approach that you are taking to resolutions will, I think, also give you ease. You will be able to sort out some complaints more speedily, but you will also have the ability to be empathetic with perhaps more complex issues. I really appreciate that way of working.

I call Graeme Dey.

We are now going to move on to questions from Willie Coffey, who is joining us online.

I would welcome your bringing something to the committee—let us see what we can do in that direction. We have come to the end of our questions, so thank you for that useful and informative discussion.

We agreed at the start of the meeting that we would take the next items in private, so I now close the public part of the meeting.

Under item 2, we will take evidence on the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman’s annual report for 2020-21. We are joined by Rosemary Agnew, who is the ombudsman; Niki Maclean, who is the director of the SPSO; and Andrew Sheridan, who is the head of improvement, standards and engagement at the SPSO. I welcome our witnesses to the meeting.

Members have received copies of the annual report, along with an update on work that has taken place since the period that is covered by the report. I intend to allow about an hour for this session, although we have some room for flexibility if we need to overrun.

I will ask the first question. The report and the update mention the impact of Covid-19. I am interested in how Covid has impacted on the number and type of complaints that have been dealt with by the ombudsman, and in whether there have been any significant changes as a result of so many public services going online.

You will be pleased to hear that there is one last question. It has been a useful discussion, and I want to take us out to a global level. Your submission states:

“the international community has set new standards and expectations for Ombudsmen which have been ratified at UN level”.

I am interested in how the current set-up in Scotland compares.

Good morning, and welcome to the 11th meeting in 2022 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I ask all members and witnesses to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off during the meeting. We have received apologies for absence from today’s meeting from Mark Griffin, Willie Coffey joins us remotely.

The first item on our agenda is to decide whether to take items 3 and 5 in private and whether to consider draft reports on the Non-Domestic Rates (Coronavirus) (Scotland) Bill and the Coronavirus (Recovery and Reform) (Scotland) Bill in private at our next meeting. Do members agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

We move on to questions from Miles Briggs.