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Are there any barriers in principle to the data sharing, or is it just a matter of working through the technicalities? Why is it taking so long?

That is fine.

I am sorry, but the commissioner’s office is not making such an argument. It is arguing that we should use this time to work up emergency powers at a reasonable pace for implementation in an emergency rather than put them in place now, when there is no emergency. The commissioner’s office argues that we should take our time now to get this right because, as we will discuss later, there are serious questions about the prescriptive model that you are adopting.

Why are we not taking our time to produce something now for implementation later? I know that there is more time now to consider the bill than there would be in an emergency—I am not arguing about that, and that is not what the commissioner’s office is talking about. It says that we should prepare draft emergency legislation now so that it can be implemented when an emergency arises.

We have explored the take-up issue before. I have no issue with the technical changes to the amounts, but I feel that the take-up for two-year-olds still seems to be lagging way behind where it should be. It was 11 per cent in 2019, 9 per cent in 2020 and 13 per cent in 2021. Although there has been an increase in take-up, which is good, the figure is still nowhere near the 40 per cent that is the estimated percentage of two-year-olds who would be entitled to the offer. I know that there were issues with regard to identifying the right young people and getting them into the system. Can you update us on any progress that has been made in that respect?

You have a majority, so you will get the bill through.

Convener, could I ask a few questions about the issue of prisons, which was raised at last week’s evidence session?

I have one final question. Does the fact that you never used these powers throughout the pandemic, and they were never required to be used, not just prove the point that the colleges and universities are making, which is that the powers within the original emergency act were too prescriptive and it would never have been possible to use them for that very reason? If they were never used before in that format, why on earth are we replicating what we never used before because it was too prescriptive? Why not take the framework approach, which is far more sensible and, in fact, the way that you worked the last time?

Section 8(5)(b) gives you the power to close colleges and universities, despite the fact that they never closed during the pandemic, because it is dangerous to close them. Animals would be at risk and laboratories would probably blow up, so those institutions are never closed. Nevertheless, you have taken on the possibility that you would have the power to close them, and that would be incredibly dangerous. Does that not prove the point that the micromanagement approach to these issues, with Government dictating what the institutions are doing, proves the point that we need to have a framework, rather than a prescriptive, approach?

Colleges and universities are not against preparations and measures. I think that there has been a misunderstanding about that. They are just arguing about how it is done. Last week, they said that they favoured a framework approach rather than the prescriptive approach in the bill. I have a couple of questions that I think make that point.

Dundee and Angus College runs animal care and zoology courses. Does the Government understand how to run those courses? Of course it does not. City of Glasgow College had 245 students at sea during the pandemic. Does the Government understand how to run nautical courses? Of course it does not. Nonetheless, the powers that you are proposing to take on are quite wide ranging.

Section 8(5)(a) enables ministers to “confer additional functions”. Section 8(5)(i) enables ministers to require universities and colleges to take

“actions in general terms, or ... particular actions, that ... Ministers consider appropriate”.

Those powers are very wide ranging. Why are you leaving open the possibility that you would take over functions to run those institutions directly when, to be frank, you do not have a clue how to run them?

Will it be possible to get that up and running by September, when the uptake will be measured again?