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Thank you—there is a huge amount to unpack there, but I want to bring in Sarah Watters first.

I am sorry to jump in, but the point about general revenue-raising powers is important. Is that one of your preferred outcomes of the new deal for local government, the fiscal framework and the wider package of work and discussions that are taking place? Are you currently advocating for that with the Scottish Government?

That is not a good use of your time.

You talked about early engagement about the programme for government. Does COSLA accept that trust in that process would have to be robust and to work both ways? To be brutally honest, there have been issues in the very recent past when there have been leaks from COSLA about Scottish Government policy announcements. We would have to move quite dramatically away from that culture, which I presume is not an officer culture but is the reality of COSLA being led by 32 councillors from various political persuasions. Early engagement on the PFG, which is confidential until the moment when it is published, could not work if the level of leaking that we have seen from the COSLA leaders group were to continue.

Just to check, does COSLA lobby the UK Government to give the Scottish Government a multiyear settlement? That is the only way in which local government is going to get a multiyear settlement.

I have loads more questions, convener, but I am conscious of time.

Your submission calls for the empowerment of local government in a number of places, which will be no surprise to committee members as it is a long-running scheme for COSLA. Can you distinguish between the powers that are currently exercised nationally that you think would result in better outcomes and more efficiencies if they were exercised locally versus powers that do not exist that you wish to see created for local government. In the first instance, what powers are exercised nationally that you believe would be more efficiently exercised or would achieve better outcomes if they were devolved to local government?

I have a specific question about teachers that I will ask in a moment, so, if you want to get into it, feel free.

Cleland Sneddon, you mentioned the UK Government’s levelling up fund. This committee is very much trying to re-engage with the UK Government on that—we are trying to get Michael Gove to come back to the committee to give evidence on it.

However, your joint written submission also makes the point about the value of multiyear funding, which is another area that is ultimately in the gift of the UK Government. The Scottish Government cannot give multiyear funding if it is not getting a multiyear settlement.

I am interested in knowing what direct engagement SOLACE and COSLA have had with the UK Government. Every year, when we come to the point of setting the grant for local government in Scotland, it feels very much like a two-way discussion between local government and the Scottish Government. One of your key asks, and the overall financial envelope, are ultimately in the power of the third level of Government that we are talking about here. What direct engagement do you have annually with the UK Government?

Mike Corbett’s point about not only reporting incidents but ensuring that what has motivated them has been accurately reported, particularly when it involves a protected characteristic, is really important. I am keen to hear from others on that, because I am aware that the Time for Inclusive Education campaign for LGBT inclusive education made the point that violence against queer pupils or staff was often being recorded as a generic incident of violence and that that motivating factor was not being recorded.

Personally, I am not remotely convinced that we are accurately recording violence against young women and girls in which misogyny is the motivating factor. Do the other witnesses believe that there is an issue there, too?

I also want to specifically ask Carrie Lindsay about the health and wellbeing census that she mentioned. There is really valuable data in that. I am interested to know how local authorities and schools have used that in the past to inform their policies on dealing with bullying and violence. I am also interested in how that data can be used, given the highly politicised discussion that took place about the census this year and the very variable return rate that we got. Is the census as usable now for that specific purpose as it has been in the past? I am aware that some schools got a 95 or 100 per cent response rate and that other schools and entire local authorities did not take part at all. Can we use the data this year in the way that we have in the past?