Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning to the panel. If I can come back to this specific bill, it looks like it takes about a year to do a section 104 if everything moves smoothly. Do you think that there is any way that we could amend the bill to avoid a section 104, which would then mean that it would all come into force at the same time, or is a section 104 inevitable because of the pension scheme aspect?

I will pursue questions on section 7. I know that there are differences in what the three of you have said in your submissions, so please feel free to offer a critique to each other.

Section 7 sets out various grounds under which the majority of trustees can remove fellow trustees, as we discussed. Should those grounds be expanded or altered? It mentions “incapable” trustees, but should we add other grounds to the bill?

I am sorry to interrupt, convener. I have a lot of questions that I would like to ask, but for now I will go back to one of the points that James Dunbar made. Can any witnesses help me with this? The Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 brought in an entitlement to split payments so that the money does not all go to one individual and more of it might go to the female partner. However, with Covid, that seems to have been lost. Does anyone have an update on where we are with that? Should we pursue it with the Scottish Government? I do not have an update, so I am interested in knowing where we are.

I wondered whether anyone has engaged with the Scottish Government on the matter, but they have not.

That is fine. Thank you for that helpful explanation.

I am grateful for that.

For our benefit, will you explain why the commission decided to make the role of supervisor optional in chapter 6 of part 1 of the bill, when it is mandatory in many legal systems that permit private purpose trusts?

I am speaking more generally.

I wonder whether I can follow up that point by asking how a trust can get best financial benefit. If it is meeting other charitable needs, is that enough? Could the bill express that a bit more clearly? Does there need to be a slight clarification with regard to a trust—say, a charitable trust—always feeling that it has to get best value from its investments or property sales?

That is helpful. I will go a wee bit further. As you may be aware, as well as this bill, the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Bill is going through the Scottish Parliament. If you are not aware of that, perhaps you could write to the committee on my next question.

How do you envisage that OSCR’s administrative power to appoint interim trustees to charitable trusts on its own initiative under section 8 of the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Bill will work with the court’s power to appoint trustees under chapter 1 of part 1 of the Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill? Is there an interaction simply on the face of the two bills, or will that cause contradictions?