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How do we avoid grafting on to the Scottish legislation the experience of the downtown Washington legislation, for example, and avoid the situations that you described earlier? What are the safety mechanisms and the flexibilities that we need to push into the system to make sure that we do not do that?

I presume that, if councils have the data that enables them to come to those decisions, that local flexibility will help them to adapt the policy to local needs.

We have talked about unintended consequences. Anna Evans mentioned possible effects of rent controls. Could you flesh out a bit more what unintended consequences we could face if we introduce rent controls as proposed in the bill?

Does Anna Evans want to come in on capacity?

That sounds like blackmail to me, for want of a better word.

I have a question on the data collection issue, which we discussed with the previous witnesses and with yourselves. Is the right amount of data being collected at local authority level? Do we need more? Do we need less? What will better enable us to shape the policy locally? I think that both Lyndsay Clelland and Emma Saunders said that they were a bit concerned about possible penalties for non-compliance with the collection of data locally, so I would like to hear a bit more about that after we hear a response to the question about data.

Hello, everybody. I just want to get a few words from you on the issue of protections. Obviously, the whole bill seeks to protect against excessive rent increases, but it proposes other protections, too—for example, landlords will have to advertise the fact that their property is in a rent control area. Could you offer us a flavour of your thoughts on whether those protections are sufficient? Indeed, are there any further protections that might need to be included?

How about you, Lyndsay?

Are there any other messages?

I have a final question about capacity. Somebody said that it is one thing to have legislation but another thing to have the capacity to put it into force. That might have been you again, Deborah Hay—forgive me if it was not. Will you tell us a little more about that? What do you mean by that? East Ayrshire Council, for example, has private sector liaison officers who do a lot of work in exchanging with the private rented sector. Would an additional duty fall on them? Do we need to have other resource to deliver that?

Thanks for that. Are there any other protections that might enhance the bill?

On staff terms and conditions and salaries throughout the management structure, have we managed to achieve the transition almost immediately? If we are still in the process of doing that, can you explain to the committee why it could not be achieved immediately after the transition process in order to ensure that the new salary structures and so on were implemented as quickly as possible?

The current Scottish Government is saddled with that historical PFI legacy, and the ratio of cost to delivery with PFI is roughly five-and-a-half to one. Does the mutual investment model offer a better ratio of repayment for the public? Paying something like five-and-a-half times more for the capital cost of the construction of a school, hospital or prison probably seems excessive to the public as well. Peter Reekie, you mentioned the profit-sharing aspect of MIM. Can the public look forward to a better ratio of return on that kind of investment in the future?