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You talked about being concerned about some of the long waiting times for complaints to be considered and the potential impact that waiting has on reducing the trust and satisfaction of members of the public. Are you aware of any research looking at how the ombudsman’s performance and the time taken to look at complaints impact on public trust in the complaints system as a whole?

I want to come back to the point that Fiona Collie flagged, as did Adam Stachura in Age Scotland’s submission, about the barriers to accessing public services that are experienced by groups such as black and minority ethnic carers, young carers, people with sensory impairments and people whose first language is not English. I will come to Adam Stachura and Fiona Collie to talk about what those barriers are and what more can be done by the ombudsman to provide access to her services.

Previously, the ombudsman has spoken to the committee about a change in legislation to give the SPSO its own-initiative investigatory powers, which would allow it to investigate public services without a member of the public necessarily making a complaint first. It is similar to what happens in Wales and Northern Ireland. What are your views on that expansion of powers? Would that be a good thing, or would there be a risk that adding something else to the remit could lead to the ombudsman’s being spread too thinly?

Finally, you have said that performance indicators appear to be rather limited and narrow in scope and that there are few or no indicators for quality and customer satisfaction. What is your view on how the SPSO or any potential external reviewer would go about measuring and monitoring those areas? Do you have any recommendations for further performance indicators?

I will not ask them all in one go, you will be glad to know.

I want to ask about neutrality, or perceived neutrality. We have received some submissions from people who are frustrated because they perceive the relationships between the ombudsman and public bodies as being too close. Do you feel that the SPSO is adequately independent from the public bodies that it is assessing complaints about? Are you concerned that people appear to doubt the neutrality of the ombudsman?

Thank you.

I have a couple of questions about the proposed expert group, minister. What will the remit of the group be, who will it report to, how will members be appointed and who will provide the secretariat?

Good morning. The annual report states that you were required to examine the appointment practices of one board during the year, and that resulted in a report of non-compliance with the code being made to the Scottish Parliament. Will you explain a bit more about that? It was the first case of that type since 2011. Will you give us a bit more detail on that instance?

The Ethical Standards Commissioner and the Standards Commission sent a joint letter to the Scottish Government to ask that legislation be amended to give the option of finding a breach without holding a hearing. Will you expand on the reason behind that proposal?

It is helpful to hear that one of the first issues that the expert group will look at is the crossover between planning and licensing. We have seen concerns in the written evidence about the interface between planning and licensing, and claims that they work separately and sometimes at odds with each other. Minister, do you have any early plans on how those two regulatory regimes could be streamlined when it comes to applying for short-term lets, and perhaps how they could work together better?