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I am interested to find out more about the discussions with the SNIB; maybe Mike Ferguson and others can forward the details to us.

In relation to the joint public-private investment that Mike spoke about, has there been any discussion with any organisation—SNIB, Scottish Enterprise or maybe even some of the regional economic bodies, such as Opportunity North East, because you hinted at the work that it was doing—about establishing an evergreen fund, whereby investment is made, possibly by public investors and also by private ones, that would eventually get a return that can be recycled so that we have a constant recycling process and constant growth of investment? If there has been a discussion about that, could you give us an indication of how it went?

Thank you.

Convener, I have a very brief supplementary question, if you do not mind, given Sarah-Jayne Dunn’s comments.

You mentioned the council tax scenario and how often that puts a great deal of grief on to clients. Do you have examples of councils that do this better than others? Would it be wise, in your opinion, to export that good practice across the board?

Thank you very much for all of that, Ms Dunn. Obviously, you have highlighted the difficulties that there have been over the past few years, what with the Covid pandemic and the current cost of living crisis. There is no doubt that that has had a major impact on folks’ mental health as well as on their finances. You talked about using secondary legislation. Is there a danger that, if we were to put too much into primary legislation, we would lose the flexibility that has been required to meet the demands of the likes of Covid and the cost of living crisis?

Convener, could I just ask a brief final question?

It is an important question.

Thank you, convener.

George Davidson and others have mentioned Spain’s ability to carry out clinical trials more efficiently. If my memory of the pandemic serves me well, Spain also had a very high vaccine take-up rate. Have Covid and some of the conspiracy theories about it—and some of the conspiracy theories that there were before—caused difficulties in certain places in recruiting people for clinical trials? Is Spain at an advantage because there seems to be trust in the Government and the infrastructure with regard to managing those clinical trials?

We can all be a bit negative when we discuss these issues, but the report talks about Scottish Enterprise and the role that it has played in start-ups in Scotland since 2016 and 2020. That role is not insubstantial, nor is the investment by Opportunity North East in building infrastructure. Should there be more co-operation between all of the players to get that right and to open up discussions about matters such as my proposal for an evergreen fund, which I think could make the odds here, as it has done in other areas?

How do we do that?