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I have a couple of questions on the impact of council tax increases. In the year before the pandemic, council tax debt increased by 25 per cent to more than £95 million. Previous evidence that has been given suggests that there will be a 3 per cent increase in council tax. What impact assessment has been done on the potential for people to be pushed into council tax debt by the budget?

I will start with Gail Macgregor, but if other witnesses want to come in, they can put an R in the chat function.

I was approaching the question from the point of view that Social Security Scotland is a new system and we need to ensure not only that it is an affordable system but that resources are being monitored and costs properly maintained. Turning that question on its head, what lessons will ministers have to learn soon about how best to meet those commitments? Significant additional money will have to be found in the overall budget. Where do you think that that will come from?

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I want to ask two questions about the forecasting that has been put forward. You outlined an estimated £1 billion in additional expenditure. In your experience, what steps are ministers taking to look at how they will control those pressures in future?

Thank you. Finally, with regard to your experience not only of this budget but across the whole portfolio of policies in the Parliament, what would you like to see—specifically for this committee around social security—to improve the processes that we have in place to follow resources? Thinking back to my time on the Health and Sport Committee, whenever we did budget scrutiny, it was incredibly difficult to follow a taxpayer pound through the national health service. From your experience, do you want to put any learning around that on the record?

Good morning, Sara. You might not be able to answer this today, but have you seen any data about councils that suspended care packages during the pandemic—there has been a lot of pressure from that in Edinburgh—and have not restored them? Do you have any examples of that? It has forced more people to leave their work to take up full-time unpaid care roles.

We have touched on the issue of disproportionate impact. What assessment has been made of the effect on those who, for example, rent out a property for the month of August in Edinburgh during the festival, or those in rural areas who rent out properties during the summer months when we have peak tourism? Real concern has been expressed that the scheme will have a disproportionate impact on small and rural businesses, as a percentage of their income. Do you share those concerns? How can they be overcome, given that the sector is often very different in different parts of the country at different times of the year?

Throughout the passage of the legislation, concerns have been raised. I have been taken by what industry experts and those who are on the front line, whose businesses will be impacted have said. They feel that the order will have unintended consequences and that it has the potential to impact negatively on a very fragile sector. Given the impact that the pandemic has had, we should be mindful of that.

I do not believe that the Scottish ministers have considered the alternatives in good faith. For example, a registration scheme has been suggested to the committee as an alternative to a licensing scheme. That would achieve the outcomes that ministers have set out.

I am concerned that what is proposed goes too far, which is the argument that the industry makes in its letter to the First Minister. The authors of the letter—the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, the Professional Association of Self Caterers UK, Scottish Agritourism, Scotland’s Best B&Bs, the Scottish Bed & Breakfast Association and Scottish Land & Estates—say:

“Make no mistake, this onerous and costly licensing scheme will cause many traditional self-caterers and B&B operators to leave the sector—hitting the supply chain and local economies in the process—and reducing the diversity of accommodation available and Scotland’s capacity to welcome visitors to our country.”

With all that in mind, and given the impact that the pandemic has had, I do not believe that the order should be approved. Therefore, I ask the committee to vote against the motion.

A key aspect that I think you accepted in your opening statement was that most of the concerns that have been raised have been about a certain few areas in the country—tourism honeypots, for want of a better word. Witnesses have argued that the Government has taken a disproportionate approach in introducing a Scotland-wide licensing system. What assessment has taken place of the control areas that have been put in place and why has a Scotland-wide scheme been seen as necessary when the issue is seen as being very much around key pressured tourism areas?

Finally, would you accept that the national safety standards could have been achieved through a registration scheme and did not necessarily need a licensing scheme?

How many exemptions would you expect to be made available? You will know about the pressures in Edinburgh during the festival, when a lot of people rent out a spare bedroom in their homes. I have received emails from constituents who say that they need the extra money to make ends meet. With the costs of energy rising, people are acutely aware of the potential to bring in additional income. How many exemptions would you expect each council to provide? Do you expect there to be a cap?