Seòmar agus comataidhean

Sure.

Charlie Marshall, you posed a question on the matter a moment ago. Do you have any thoughts on Bill Kidd’s question?

If that is not to be the mechanism, what would you like to see?

No bother.

I saw Mike Blair shake his head.

Would you like to comment, Valerie Macniven?

Item 2 is evidence on the Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill. I welcome Valerie Macniven, a trustee at the Church of Scotland Trust; Mike Blair, a solicitor and trustee at Gillespie Macandrew; Joan Fraser, the chair of charitable trust at Edinburgh and Lothian Trust Fund Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation; Charlie Marshall, the general manager at Wings for Warriors; Mhairi Maguire, the director of corporate services at Enable Scotland; Chris Sheldon, a trustee at Turcan Connell; Madelaine Sproule, a solicitor at the Church of Scotland, who is joining us remotely; and Ian Hood, the trustee of a private trust, who is also joining us remotely.

I remind you not to worry about turning on your microphones during the session because they are controlled by broadcasting. If you would like to come in on a question, please raise your hand or indicate to the clerks; the witnesses who are online should please type RTS in the chat function. There is no need to answer every question, but feel free to follow up any question in writing after the meeting, if you wish.

I will start the questions from the committee.

Can you provide the committee with some background to the trust or trusts with which you have a connection and say how you became a trustee—or a beneficiary, if that is applicable? For example, what do the trusts with which you are involved aim to do? How many trustees, beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries do they have? We will start with Chris Sheldon.

As no one else wants to come in on that question, we will move on to Bill Kidd.

Thank you for that. Ian Hood’s point regarding being the sole trustee has not come up thus far in any of the sessions that the committee has had, and the next question that I will pose probably does not include you, Ian, but it is clear that your situation will not be unique, so I am keen to get your views as well.

Has the bill has got the balance right between powers given directly to trustees to act by majority, and powers for the court to authorise a decision about a trust? If you were to propose any changes to the bill in that area, what would they be?

Okay. Mhairi?