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Good morning, minister, and your colleagues. The regulations apply only to new loans; they do not apply retrospectively. Why did you make that decision if the extent of the problem is as described by Ms Davies?

Good morning, minister and colleagues.

The committee heard last week that homelessness has gone up in Scotland but, interestingly, that the numbers of people who had been made homeless in the private rented sector had dropped as a result of the measures that had been in place. Will you give us a flavour of what you think the impact of the regulations might be on homelessness, particularly in relation to the relaxation of eviction notices and so on? I presume that the Government will be keeping a close eye on that.

Did you say that the measures that we are discussing today will also expire on 31 March 2025 but that they could be extended beyond then, if appropriate? I think that those were the words that you used. Will you be keeping a close eye on the impact on homelessness among any group to help you to decide on your approach and strategy at that point?

Thank you.

Your board paper said that you had completed only five actions. That is a huge jump in one month.

Are you confident that 89 per cent of the recommendations are completed?

Thanks. I leave it at that.

Auditor General, the public perception of all this is not great. I do not think that we should still be hearing that lot of work needs to be done. We have heard that said before, and we are still hearing it now.

Constituents who talk to me about the transition say, “What are the solutions on offer? I do not know where to find them or who to talk to about them.” They ask whether there will be subsidy or other help to install whichever devices will be used. However, their main question is, “How much is this thing going to cost me to run?”

In your view, what will be the key sea-change element that will accelerate the transition? I think that I know what it will be: the cost of electricity, which is currently four times higher than that of gas. Even if an army of heat-pump engineers were to appear from somewhere, and even if we had great subsidy schemes on offer, people will still vote with their wallets and say, “No thanks—it’s too expensive.” If someone were to switch just now from consuming gas to consuming electricity to heat their house, their electricity charge ratio would be four times higher than it is at the minute. Is that not the key challenge that we face in effecting at pace the transition that we need?

Good morning to everyone. One of the issues that were raised in the Auditor General’s report was the very high prison population in Forth Valley. You did not mention that, Amanda, but I want to give you the opportunity to share with the committee your views on the impact of having to deal with that disproportionately high prison population in the health board. What impact does that have on the health board’s finances and performance delivery? I wanted to give you an opportunity to set the record straight for us.

Amanda Croft said that you are funded for the prison population. However, you have nearly a quarter of Scotland’s entire prison population in your health board area. Does that mean that you need additional, different and more demanding skills that other health boards might not need in order to deliver care for the ageing population that Frances Dodd described?