Seòmar agus comataidhean

We move to questions from John Mason.

I do not want to place that as culture because the way that the process works clearly informs outcomes as well. However, it is not at the heart of decisions about where policies might be delivered. I am thinking about how medically assisted treatment standards and drug use might be applied in a rural area versus an urban area. Is there an impact? Does Engender work on such issues to try to inform the gendered nature of such decisions?

Thank you for your evidence. We have gone slightly over time and I appreciate your forbearance, particularly with me at the end.

I think—[Interruption.] Bear with me a second while I look for the script. This is my first time convening a committee meeting, which you will have noticed.

We will continue taking evidence on effective Scottish Government decision making at our next meeting.

That concludes the public part of the meeting. The next item on our agenda, which will be discussed in private, is consideration of our work programme.

Douglas Lumsden, do you want to come in with a specific supplementary question?

Yes, there is.

Do you not feel that that has been covered?

Some of our earlier discussion was about trust between the Government and your organisations. I am also concerned about the public’s trust. We are talking about big policy regimes. For example, I am thinking about the Promise to care-experienced young people, where there is a real frustration with its lack of progress and it not being delivered, but there is political unanimity that it is the right thing to do. Do we risk the trust of organisations and the public if we set ambitious change directions but have not thought about how we might deliver them?

I have nothing to declare.

Lucy Hughes said that we have strategies that are “world leading” and Craig McLaren said that we have “good policy” but surely that is not the case if how those things will be delivered is not thought through. Are they not simply completely unrealistic in that regard? In what way are they “world leading” if they cannot be delivered?

The previous First Minister set out a national mission to combat drug deaths in Scotland. How have your organisations been involved in the decisions to implement that?