Seòmar agus comataidhean

I thought that it was important to ask that question so that you could comment.

Thank you.

I thank our guests for the enlightening discussion so far.

I have a question about what I think is a positive aspect of the bill. How might the bill’s provisions on pledges help businesses to access finance?

That is extremely helpful.

My next question is about something that might not be quite so helpful, but I will ask it anyway. There are concerns that the statutory pledge provisions in the bill could in Scotland open up a high-cost lending market that could target vulnerable consumers. Do you have any idea of whether that is likely to happen?

I am sorry to come back in. I think that this might have been covered earlier, but there is a general agreement about the £1,000 threshold in the bill. Obviously, that has been in place for quite a while. I have heard a few people say certain numbers; for example, I believe that £3,000 was mentioned last week. It will be updated to some degree, but do you have an idea or a clue as to what the best direction that it could go in might be?

Everybody is pretty much of the opinion that it needs to be higher than the £1,000 threshold that has been broached. As Alan McIntosh mentioned, the more important element is possibly not so much where it starts—although it has to be higher than £1,000—but how it increases over time. That is really the important element. It is useful to have heard that.

I thank the witnesses very much for their evidence so far. You have answered quite a few things that I was going to ask, so I will go off on a bit of a tangent from where we have been so far. My question is more about businesses in communities. Do you think that the proposals in the bill, as presented, should apply equally to all businesses or should there be additional protections for small traders and small businesses?

That is fair enough. Thank you very much for that. Thank you to Mr McIntosh for the outline as well.

That is a useful direction. Thank you very much for that.

Thank you for the depth of your responses. There is general agreement—in fact, there is total agreement—that the £1,000 asset protection threshold for consumer statutory pledges is too low these days, and it is expected that that will be replaced. I think that most people are looking forward to alternatives for achieving protection for essential household goods, including, specifically, the exclusion of what are termed ordinary household goods or the creation of an index-linked accelerator to ensure that the threshold is updated. Do you have any views on the strengths or weaknesses of those approaches?