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Okay. Thank you, minister.

Good morning to the minister and officials. I am the last member to speak, so this will not take long now.

It is disappointing that the equality impact assessment did not come out until Friday last week, particularly as that was after we had spoken to stakeholders. Although I accept that the assessment says that the bill is anticipated to have a positive impact on all equality groups, we have not been able to scrutinise that with stakeholders in the past couple of weeks.

First, why was the assessment published only last week? How would you respond to concerns that we have heard while taking evidence that the issues are not really being recognised? I would also appreciate your response to a comment by Homeless Network Scotland, which said:

“We need to up our game on this and ensure that we look through an equalities-competent lens at prevention duties into the overall Bill”.

I am interested in what you have to say about that.

As much as I accept that there will be 32 variations, which is the way to go, because that gives local democracy a way to work through that, I am reassured by the minister that there will be adequate resource and financing for our rural communities in the way that the legislation is implemented.

Thank you. Anyone who is on the committee will know that the rural lens is a big issue for me. The committee has heard about the unique characteristics of homelessness and fuel poverty in rural areas. There are concerns that the bill does not recognise that and those were very much highlighted at one meeting. In what ways will the bill’s proposals support the prevention of homelessness in rural areas? I am interested in hearing you expand on that.

I accept that, but we are hearing another, “Bear with us, we’ll do it over the summer,” so I will repeat the previous comment, which is that we really need to see more detail about what that will actually mean, so that we can carry out proper scrutiny.

Yes.

Good morning—it is still morning. I have two questions: one is on the rural side and the other is on equalities. From your perspective, have equalities issues been properly looked at? Have they been involved? The witnesses in our previous session did not think that they had been considered. On the equalities side of the bill, what do you think? We will start with Suzie Mcilloney and work our way along.

That is very interesting. Thank you.

My other question is on the rural side. From looking at the differences, we know, and we have a lot of evidence, that what is happening in urban areas and what is happening in rural areas are two different things. Are the homelessness issues in rural areas taken into consideration? Have we got it right? How is the bill looking to tackle those?

I will ask a yes or no question and put you on the spot. Basically, what I took from that answer is that you do not think that we are sufficiently accounting for that in the bill. Is that correct?

Rural provision is a big thing for me, as many people will know. When we took evidence from the third sector last week, we heard that, basically, the current system is broken, especially when it comes to rural areas, where there is an entirely different set of issues. Will you give us an insight into whether rural areas are covered properly and whether the bill will do what it says on the tin? I hope that Mike Callaghan and Pat Togher will answer that question.