Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you. I will bring in our remote witnesses, starting with Judith Higson.

Item 2 is a round-table evidence session on family law disputes between parents about the care of their children. I welcome Judith Higson, from the child and family law sub-committee at the Law Society of Scotland; Lesley Anderson, chair of the Family Law Association of Scotland; and Dr Marsha Scott, chief executive officer of Scottish Women’s Aid. They are all joining us remotely. I also welcome Ruth Innes QC of the Faculty of Advocates; Megan Farr, policy officer with the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland; Ian Maxwell, national manager of Shared Parenting Scotland; and Rosanne Cubitt, head of practice for family mediation and relationship counselling at Relationships Scotland. They are joining us in person.

I refer members to papers 1, 2 and 3, and I invite each of the witnesses, starting with those who are in the room, to make a brief opening statement. I ask Ruth Innes to start.

Okay. We will go back to Fulton MacGregor.

I will just go back to Fulton to check whether he is happy with that.

Thank you very much. We will move to questions. There are seven witnesses, so I ask members to indicate who should answer their question. If other witnesses want to come in, they should indicate that, and I will try to bring them in. The aim is to have a discussion, and we will try to intersperse the views of witnesses with questions from the committee. If we have moved on but a witness still has something to say, they should take the opportunity to get their points on the record. The panel is quite big, so my chairing will not be seamless. It would be too difficult and we would be here all day if we were to go round every witness for every comment.

This is a starting point for the committee on the subject. We will look at everything that we hear today and then decide what more we want to do.

I ask Maggie Chapman to kick off with the first questions.

I will go to Rosanne Cubitt and then Karen Adam. If folk still have something to say, they can come in after that.

There are a few areas that we have not managed to cover, but we have covered many issues in depth. There are quite a few things for the committee to consider and take forward. I thank you all so much for your evidence.

Ruth, would you like to come in?

Good morning, and welcome to the fifth meeting in session 6 of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. We have received apologies from Pam Duncan-Glancy. Fulton MacGregor and Karen Adam are joining us virtually.

Agenda item 1 is a decision on whether to take item 5, on correspondence from the COVID-19 Recovery Committee, in private. Do members agree to take that item in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you for that and for keeping your response brief. We are tight for time, and members want to cover other areas, so I ask that we all try to be brief. However, I understand that we are covering big topics.