Seòmar agus comataidhean

We knew that the funding was limited to a certain timescale and that it would run out, which it has. Are colleges and so on supposed to find some other way of supporting people in the interim, or is there some sort of link with the national health service?

So you are currently looking to achieve the full universal provision of free school meals for primary school children.

Would it be possible for the committee to look into areas that other Parliaments and assemblies have powers over in order to address items such as statutory instruments? Could the committee suggest areas to the Scottish Government and say, “This works here and that works there”? Could we ask that the matter is looked into in future scrutiny?

Yes.

If it becomes framework legislation, would that be the result of a conscious decision? If so, at what level would that decision be taken, and at what point in the process and under what circumstances?

Dr Grez Hidalgo looks as though he is keen to say something.

I will come to Professor Whitaker in a wee second, but I note that the committee’s name is “Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee”, so we have a duty, as much as anything else, to ensure that we propose whatever role we have.

Dr Fox has been nodding away enthusiastically.

As it is still the new year, I wish everyone a happy 2025. I think that Dr Govan might have some background information that he can give in response to my question. We all know, and it has been widely stated by the witnesses, that the Scottish Parliament is not unique in its scrutiny work. Are there lessons that we can learn or ideas that we can gather from elsewhere that we can take forward in developing our work on scrutiny of framework legislation?

No, I just want to thank the witnesses. It has been wide-ranging discussion. There has been a lot of agreement, which has been useful for the committee to hear.