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If a family is short of food or cannot afford to heat their house, the cash is pretty helpful, is it not?

One of my main concerns is ensuring that delegates from poorer countries are not going to be disadvantaged, as they are less likely to have had the vaccine, and I seek your reassurance that every effort will be made to treat every delegate fairly and that those from richer countries do not have an advantage in that respect.

On a more general point, I think that there are three main vaccines that are being used in this country. Are we clear whether, as has been claimed by some people, they have no impact, some impact or different impacts on transmission of the virus? On a more international level, do some of the vaccines that people coming from overseas might have had affect whether they transmit the virus when they come here?

The convener’s line of questioning has got me thinking a bit. We have talked about people from here going overseas, but what about people who are coming here for the 26th United Nations climate change conference of the parties, or COP26? I assume that some of them will be in the complicated categories that Jason Leitch highlighted; they might have had a vaccination but have no certificate, for example, or they might be coming from, say, Russia and have had the Sputnik V vaccine, which I believe we have not approved. How will that work?

I accept that.

Ms Walker, I did not ask you to respond to any of those questions, but you are more than welcome to. However, my first question for you follows on from what Liz Smith was asking about; indeed, you might already have answered it. You say in your submission that

“Prior to the ... pandemic, the Scottish Government had been considering methods of improving the tax policy-making process and the legislative processes for taxes”

and that you would like to see that worked through. Are you talking purely about a finance bill, or is there a bit more to it than that?

I have another question that is aimed at you, although Mr Robertson might want to come in, too. The voluntary sector has asked for multiyear funding, as it does every year, and a bit more predictability, which Mr Robertson mentioned. In practice—you are looking at the practical side of this—is it possible for any Government, whether a Westminster Government, the Scottish Government or even local government to make such a commitment and to adopt a multiyear approach, rather than the annual process that we have at the moment?

Thank you. Again, I have a question that is primarily for Polly Tolley, unless either of the other two witnesses want to come in. Another of COSLA’s suggestions was that ring fencing should be removed and that we should give local authorities more flexibility in how they spend money. I know that that is an issue for citizens advice bureaux, because some of them get funding from local authorities and some do not. From a citizens advice point of view as well as from a wider point of view, do you have a view on whether we should make more decisions centrally in Parliament or leave more decisions to local government?

On empty property rates, which the convener asked about, my recollection is that properties were sitting empty for quite a long time while their owners appeared to hope or expect that the property value would go up and they would make money that way, so it did not matter whether they put someone into the property. The convener might remember the example of the post office building in George Square—a beautiful building, right in the centre of Glasgow, which sat empty for ages. Is that issue not why we brought in the empty property rates? Is there a risk that development would be slowed further if we did not have those provisions?

Your submission—and, I think, the submission from Scottish Chambers of Commerce—talks about matching UK tax rates, cutting property taxes, LBTT incentives and so on. There might be arguments for all those moves, but if the Scottish Government and the Parliament take in less money from those taxes, we might have to, say, cut funding to the NHS or local government. At a time when everyone is struggling and the NHS is clearly under pressure, can you justify cutting any taxes, given such knock-on effects?

That is helpful.

Your submission says that the

“Scottish Government should undertake and publish a full assessment of Scottish tax powers and their potential to prevent and reduce child poverty.”

Will you expand on what you mean?