Seòmar agus comataidhean

The next item on the agenda is to take evidence on the Miners’ Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Bill. I welcome to the meeting Richard Leonard MSP, who is joining us for this item.

I also welcome our witnesses. Nicky Wilson is president of the National Union of Mineworkers in Scotland; Robert Young is a board member of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust; Alex Bennett is a former miner; and Professor Jim Phillips is a professor of economic and social history at the University of Glasgow. For connectivity purposes, Robert Young and Alex Bennett will contribute by audio only.

I refer members to papers 2 and 3 and ask them to indicate which witness they are directing their questions to. We can then open the floor to other witnesses for comments. If other witnesses wish to respond to a question, please indicate that by typing R in the chat function on BlueJeans, and I will bring you in if time permits. Members can also use the chat function on BlueJeans to indicate that they want to ask a supplementary question.

I invite each of our witnesses to make a short opening statement, if they wish to do so. I will start with Nicky Wilson.

Fulton, do you want to hear from someone else as well?

If nobody else is particularly keen to answer that question and if Nicky Wilson has covered it, we will move on to questions from Maggie Chapman.

I thank both witnesses for their opening statements.

Fulton MacGregor has done exactly what I am not looking for by putting it back to me to bring everybody in. However, given that it is the first question, let us start with Alex Bennett.

We now go to Richard Leonard.

Thanks very much. That is the end of the committee’s questions. We have taken a bit longer than we expected. I thank both of you for giving us your time. That is really helpful for the work that we have to do.

That brings us to the end of the public part of our meeting. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 18 January, when we will meet in private to consider our draft report on the petition to end conversion therapy and our future work programme.

I close the public part of the meeting. We will move into private session for the final item on today’s agenda.

Thank you. Pam, have you finished your questions?

Pam Duncan-Glancy wishes to put a brief supplementary question to Jim Phillips. Is that correct, Pam?

We will not be able to have everyone respond; committee members need to be a bit more selective, please. Nicky, do you want to come in?