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I move amendment 51, convener.

So that we can vote on the amendment, I move amendment 50.

When I attended school, I learned one thing, which was to listen to what people are saying. I have heard a great deal of what you are saying, but I am still going to ask my questions, because we are in the Scottish Parliament and we need to have a bit of talk about politics and how it is handled. We know about the roles of national Government and local government in supporting policy change in education and even driving it. How would the panel suggest balancing those traditional, top-down implementation processes with more bottom-up approaches? I know that a bit of that has been covered already, but how do you think that the two might be mixed together?

Is there a danger of throwing the baby out with the bath water if we change it too radically, too quickly?

No. That is fine. Thank you very much for that.

What are the panel’s views on how structural reform of the Scottish Qualifications Authority and Education Scotland will support better outcomes for children and young people? I do not mean this in the wrong way, but it is really supposed to be about children and young people rather than the process itself. How will that deliver?

He was just agreeing with what I said; that was all.

Thank you—that is comprehensive. Are you still in talks with the Law Society over the issue, given the questions that it has raised?

On that basis, although Scottish Government ministers would be making an intervention, that would be to redirect the powers to the Lord President. Is that correct?

Thank you for your responses so far, minister. I want to ask a question about making changes to regulatory functions.

Paragraph 23 of schedule 2 provides that where a regulator has acted or failed to act in a way that has had, or is likely to have, an adverse impact on the observance of any of the regulatory objectives, and the matter cannot be addressed adequately by the Scottish ministers taking any of the measures mentioned in the bill, such as setting performance targets or imposing a financial penalty, the Scottish ministers may make regulations to change or remove some or all of the functions of the regulator. That sounds quite dramatic. Additional requirements must be met before such regulations may be made, including sharing them with consultees and laying them in draft before the Scottish Parliament.

Stakeholders who appeared before the committee have suggested that schedule 2 should be deleted in its entirety, given that they are also calling for the deletion of section 20, to which schedule 2 relates. Do you have any further reflections on the matter?