Seòmar agus comataidhean

I will move on. Susie, the bill contains a requirement on social landlords to have a domestic abuse policy. Many social landlords already have such a policy. In your experience, do social landlords already implement domestic abuse policies? What difference would a statutory requirement make, if any?

The obvious follow-up question is whether you think that that should be delegated to IJBs in all 32 local authorities.

That is a good answer.

Moving on to the issue of domestic abuse, the bill’s provisions aim to prevent homelessness for those who are at risk of, or are suffering, domestic abuse. What is your view of the effectiveness of those provisions? Perhaps Mike Callaghan or Pat Togher could come in first.

Thank you. I want to come to Valerie Arbuckle on that point. Obviously, the police are the first to deal with domestic abuse. Do you have any views on that aspect of the bill? Just to develop the discussion slightly, is Police Scotland concerned that you are becoming more social workers than police officers?

Good morning, panel, and thank you for coming.

What are some of the problems with the fact that the current legal framework considers people to be threatened with homelessness if it is likely they will become homeless within two months? The bill would change that period to six months. Would that make a difference?

Perhaps we can start with Shea Moran and work along the row.

Following on from that, does anyone have comments on the proposal in the bill that, as part of the local housing strategy, councils should undertake an assessment of people’s housing support needs and the availability of housing support services, including homelessness services?

In the interest of openness, I declare that my older brother, Dr Balfour, is a member of the Edinburgh IJB and that my wife is a special constable.

Before we turn to domestic abuse, I will quickly go back to the previous theme and ask Pat Togher a question about how IJBs work in practice. If someone is in hospital and needs housing or might become homeless, is it the role of the local authority or of the national health service to deal with that, or is that your role? How do we ensure that such individuals do not fall between the cracks?

And Social Security Scotland.

Professor Fitzpatrick, did you want to jump in here?

Picking up on that point, the legislation says six months, not six-plus months. We are looking at a bill—that is, something that would become law. Maeve, you have said in your submission that you would want how this is defined to be set out in a bit more detail, probably in regulations. Do you want that period of six-plus months to be better defined in the bill itself?