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At the moment, colleges are working with community planning partnerships, because there will be different need and demand in different areas. Online training is a good example of that. There will be certain settings where it is difficult to get people into a room together, but in other places there are language cafes, which seem to work well for certain people—though not everyone—because the cafe is a relaxed, conversational, informal setting where some people are more able to pick up a language.

Because there are different kinds of ESOL provision, it is important that local communities can feed into that to ensure that provision is based on local need. That can be particularly true in rural areas; some people might prefer online lessons to travelling, although others might be unable to access online provision.

We are doing what we can to support asylum seekers. We do not exclude people, although we have seen that attitude in other settings. We are inclusive, and asylum seekers can access Scottish public services such as the NHS, schools and the baby box. The member will know that, yesterday, we published our vision for the constitution of an independent Scotland. We would enshrine human rights for everyone in a written constitution.

We are trying to take that approach even now, as a devolved Government. Our human rights bill is out for consultation, and we are seeking views on how best to incorporate international treaties, as far as possible and within our devolved competence, into Scots law. We do not seek to treat people differently on the basis of how they got here or what their personal circumstances are.

A lot of work is going on at the moment across Government to embed that approach. All ministers must have that human rights-based approach in mind and we are embedding equality in everything that we do. There is no gatekeeping to prevent asylum seekers from accessing any of the devolved services that we provide, including the baby box, education or the NHS.

Absolutely. It is important to keep remembering that, even though “new Scots” is an umbrella term for all different groups of migrants, the groups are not homogeneous—even among refugees and asylum seekers. They have various needs and expectations on arriving in Scotland.

On Hongkongers, theirs is the kind of lived experience that will be valuable when we shape the refreshed strategy. As we form the new strategy, we can absolutely engage with the people who have raised such concerns and ensure that they are taken into account. I hope that those people will feel that the next strategy is much more relevant to them, if they have managed to feed into the process.

There has been engagement with Mears Group in the past. However, as Fulton MacGregor will appreciate, the Scottish Government does not have a place in the contract between the UK Government and Mears Group—it is entirely between them. The UK Government sets the criteria for the contract, and Mears delivers it. That said, the committee certainly has a place in scrutinising how the relationship is working and whether the contract is meeting expectations.

I will bring in Aileen Harding to say more about engagement by officials.

First, I would say that the enshrining of human rights in Scots law will benefit absolutely everyone. However, asylum seekers are a particularly good example of the real-life impact of having those rights realised in a country and being able to access justice if those rights are not being met.

As for the ability to be supported by the Government, the right to access housing, the right to access education and all of those things have a real impact on everyone’s lives. However, when we look at asylum seekers as a cohort, now, in Scotland, we see that, for those groups, there are areas where the human rights in the treaties that we are looking to incorporate are not being met. If those rights are set out and if, of course, we stick to them and ensure that, in everything that we do—for example, when we are assigning budgets and making policy decisions—we have human rights in mind and are prioritising on the basis on meeting the human rights of everyone in the country, it will absolutely have a real-life impact.

A number of organisations have raised concerns about the specific issue of bankruptcy. Given that it is an existing criterion, does the cabinet secretary think that there might be a lack of communication or enforcement in that respect? Is the bill likely to mean that, in the future, people facing bankruptcy will be treated differently to how they are treated now?

Does the cabinet secretary think that it would be appropriate to have a different bankruptcy regime in Scotland? Is that needed?

I have quite a few questions on disqualifications. It was suggested at our previous session that there could be scope for a different regime in Scotland that would allow people who would normally be disqualified to act as trustees, with certain conditions attached. Does the cabinet secretary have any thoughts on that?

Thank you. I agree, and I think that that is clear.

Does the cabinet secretary have any concerns about the possibility of mistaken identity in relation to the searchable record of disqualified trustees?

Good morning, cabinet secretary. We took evidence from Bòrd na Gàidhlig a few weeks ago, and it was keen to know whether a charity’s Gaelic name could be included on the register alongside its English name. Would you be open to considering that?