Seòmar agus comataidhean

Does anyone else have an idea of what the percentage occupation is?

Good morning, everyone. I would like to get your views on whether the proposal will effect change and whether second-home owners will, in fact, change the way that they use their property. I will start with Bill Lobban.

Bill Lobban, do you have any views on other incentives or mechanisms?

Does anyone else have any views on alternatives?

Colleagues have mentioned the Welsh experience, which Tim Douglas commented on in his submission. Do you have anything to add to that? Could anything from the experience in Wales help us to shape and drive our policy?

Will the policy actually bring about the change that we are hoping for? I ask our colleagues from the islands to comment on that.

Thanks very much for that, everybody. Some of you have anticipated my next questions, which were about the Welsh experience. However, I want to ask about other potential incentives. Tim Douglas gave a few examples of those, one of which related to leasing. Do you see other mechanisms being used alongside the measure or instead of it? A view from all the panel members would be helpful to give a balance, but I will first go back to you, Tim.

What an important discussion we are having. It is important for the committee to hear Anne Rowan speak in the way that she has done. That is one of the most moving contributions that I have heard in my long experience as an MSP, so thanks for that.

I note that, while the committee has been in discussion, the Government has announced an extra £1 million for the community link worker health and social care partnership in Glasgow. Christiana Melam will probably be delighted to hear that wee bit of good news, and there will no doubt be a clamour from other health boards to get something similar.

My question is, how can we improve these services? I am thinking in particular about the Auditor General’s comments about the cluttered landscape and structures that we have. We have integration joint boards and health and social care partnerships, but we often do not have compatible systems to share information and so on.

Does anyone have a view on that? I would be obliged if you would give us a few thoughts on how we might improve the situation.

Thank you for your important contributions.

This is my final question, in the interests of time. The Auditor General’s report was fairly critical of the Government’s ability to measure performance, quality of mental health outcomes and so on. However, everyone around the table has contributed some great ideas and great local experiences of good practice here, there and everywhere.

What are your views on how the Government can better do that so that we can report on outcomes? That is important. Should we collect the various experiences from around Scotland and somehow gather them together? I would appreciate your views on how we should tackle that. I start with you again, Dr Williams.

Good morning to you both. Gail Macgregor, what is COSLA’s view on the 18-month lead-in debate? You have probably heard the variety of evidence given at previous committee meetings, if you have had a chance to see them. Rob Dickson from VisitScotland was quite passionate about needing the 18-month lead-in time, so that the councils are fully ready after their consultation to implement the levy. Does COSLA think that the levy can come in a bit sooner than that? Could you give us a flavour of COSLA’s view, please?