Seòmar agus comataidhean

That is precisely what I was going to ask. I am conscious that the House of Lords is not an elected chamber, but we have seen the benefits of increased contributions there. I would welcome your reflections on the issues that we are debating.

I have a couple of questions about recruitment and retention of, and diversity among, elected representatives. We know that Mr Mountain has had to contribute virtually for a significant period of time. Hybrid working has supported that.

I was interested to hear about use of proxy voting at Westminster for members who are on baby leave or have long-term health conditions. We lost some very high-quality parliamentarians during the previous parliamentary session because of issues with work-life balance.

My question is for Karen. Setting aside the need to make the technical and dynamic aspects of hybrid Parliaments work effectively, what benefits do hybrid Parliaments bring with regard to retaining members of your, or any other, legislature? Do they create a work-life balance that might help to retain mothers who would not otherwise get to spend time with their families and who might feel that something has to give?

That point is well made. I am not sure that anyone has suggested exclusively remote participation, but you make a good point that relationships must first be built, fostered and nurtured before there can be a positive dynamic for hybrid work. We are grappling with that here, in the Scottish Parliament. Thank you for putting that on the record.

Gerit, do you have any observations?

Thank you.

I do not think that I was in any way creating a false concept of participation. This is a hybrid meeting that we are involved in. We are having such interaction at the moment.

It took me a long time to get there, but the question that I was asking was whether you think that the advantages of a hybrid Parliament from the point of view of the opportunities that it provides for underrepresented groups far outweigh some of the limitations that you mentioned, which I note seem to have been observed through a Westminster lens and seem to relate to a Westminster culture.

Thank you.

I have one final question about the unintended negative consequences of hybrid working. I was at a hybrid conference where we used a platform called Remo. I will not go into it, but the platform was fantastic in allowing people to table-hop and mingle with each other. However, what might the unintended negative consequences of hybrid working be, and how can those be mitigated? We have heard a lot about informal chats that cannot happen unless people are face to face. Nothing replaces face-to-face interactions, but mitigations can be put in place. What mitigations can be put in place to combat negative consequences?

Also, I meant to ask in my initial question—it was remiss of me not to do so—whether the reforms will make it more likely that people from underrepresented groups will stand for election.

That is helpful. Dr Williamson, it would also be helpful to hear in your response whether, going forward, we should conduct equality impact assessments. If so, should that happen before we evolve our hybrid Parliament, or, as you have mentioned, should that be an iterative process whereby we measure those things in real time?

Dr Fox, I am not sure whether you have finished, as your connection was intermittent.

Yes.