Chamber and committees

Before I bring in Pam Duncan-Glancy, I note that colleagues should be aware that, regardless of whether we are in public or private—although it looks more likely that we will be in public—I intend to suspend at 11 o’clock so that we can observe a two-minute silence.

I thank Ms Anastasiadou, Ms Sweeney, Dr Sutherland and the minister for the extended time that they have given us this morning—it is very much appreciated. The session has been insightful and helpful, and I have no doubt that we will see, and welcome, you before the committee very soon. That concludes the public part of today’s meeting.

Thank you, Dr Sutherland.

Beth Watts wants to come in on the back of that. I ask her to be brief, please.

Thank you very much. I believe that Elena Whitham has a supplementary question.

I will bring in Marie McNair for the final theme of questioning.

Good morning and welcome to the ninth meeting of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. Apologies have been received from Natalie Don, and I am pleased to say that Evelyn Tweed is attending as her substitute.

The first item of business is a decision on whether to take items 5 and 6 in private. Do members agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Agenda item 3 is an evidence-taking session on homelessness and rough sleeping. Our plan is to hold some stand-alone evidence sessions on topics that are covered by the committee’s remit to establish priorities for future work in the current parliamentary session, and this is the first of those focused sessions.

Given that homelessness is also of interest to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee, we have invited members of that committee to join us today. In addition to Mr Briggs, who is a member of both committees, I have great pleasure in welcoming Elena Whitham, who is deputy convener of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I hope that we can continue to carry out such joint committee scrutiny where there is a crossover of issues.

I also welcome our panel of witnesses, who are joining us remotely: Maggie Brünjes, who is chief executive of the Homeless Network Scotland; Lorna Campbell, who is financial wellbeing and revenues manager at Dumfries and Galloway Council; Lorraine McGrath, who is chief executive of the Simon Community Scotland; Dr Beth Watts, who is a senior research fellow at Heriot-Watt University; and Gordon MacRae, who is assistant director of Shelter Scotland.

I have a few housekeeping points to highlight for colleagues in the room and those who are joining us remotely. I ask everyone to allow our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn your microphones on before you start to speak. Witnesses, you can indicate with an R in the dialogue box in BlueJeans, or simply with a show of hands, if you wish to come in on a question; I will monitor that as best I can. You should not feel that you have to answer every single question—if you have nothing new to add to what others have said, that is okay.

I invite members to direct their questions to particular witnesses. We are fortunate today in that we have such a wide range of witnesses before us, but in the interests of time—we have about an hour and a half—I hope that we can direct our questions to individuals.

I now invite colleagues to ask questions. The first comes from Jeremy Balfour.

I note from the minister’s correspondence that it is the Government’s intention to introduce legislation to bring about employment injury assistance. He suggests that your proposed legislation is therefore “unnecessary”. How would you respond to that?

Before I bring in Pam Duncan-Glancy, I invite Lorna Campbell to reflect, from a local authority perspective, on the priority groups that were referred to in an earlier answer from Lorraine McGrath, and on the policies that you have put in place in your authority, in particular for prison leavers, for people in black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and for women and children fleeing domestic violence. Is there anything that you want to mention in relation to what you are doing to help those people?