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That moves us on nicely to the elections bill, which may well take up much of the committee’s time. I know that the minister will not mind my saying that yesterday, at the Conveners Group, where he gave evidence, genuine concern was expressed about the work levels of certain committees, particularly with regard to legislative instruments, along with other things.

As we approach the midway point in the current session of Parliament, and having heard your answers in respect of the Electoral Commission and the work that still needs to be done there, when can we expect the elections bill? Let us start with that one. Will it be tomorrow? [Laughter.]

I will dig into that a bit more. There seems to have been a historical view, rightly or wrongly, that there were procedural challenges with registering to vote, which was the reason that people were giving. However, some of the more current research suggests that the reasons are more attitudinal, with people actively choosing not to register to vote.

Has the Scottish Government had any thoughts, or done any work, on the two different aspects? Historically—as you said, minister—there has been a responsibility on politicians in that regard: go out and find those people, urge them to register to vote and then hopefully persuade them to vote for you. That seems to address very much the procedural side, and it is an argument that we have been having for decades.

However, to echo what you and Ivan McKee have said, the figures show more than that. The attitudinal question is this. Is there a group of people who do not want to put their heads over the parapet on that public document, or are you aware of any other attitudinal reasons that may positively lead people to not want to register?

That seems to be one of the challenges—we all have subjective evidence, but there is very little objective evidence out there.

It is interesting—

Maybe we will return after the publication of your response.

Please go ahead.

Good morning. I welcome everyone to the 19th meeting in 2023 of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee. We have received apologies from Evelyn Tweed, but we are expecting Annie Wells to attend the meeting.

Agenda item 1 is a decision on whether to take in private agenda item 3, under which we will consider the evidence that we will hear from the Minister for Parliamentary Business under agenda item 2. Do members agree to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Please feel free to do so.

Certainly, when the total numbers go up, we seem to have a particular problem in Scotland, which appears to be historical, with the inaccuracy of the registration. When we were looking into it—and, similarly, in discussions with the Electoral Commission—we had some responses, but they are still not satisfactory.

Does that include recording the special adviser’s advice and which special adviser gave it?