Chamber and committees

My question follows on from the previous responses. My colleague Fiona Hyslop touched on the written evidence from Historic Environment Scotland, which raises concerns about how NPF4’s new focus on sustainable development and the climate and nature emergencies

“relates to subsequent policies and whether any relative weighting applies”.

Should policies to address the climate and nature emergencies take precedence over other planning policies? I believe that Roger Curtis stated earlier that there has been some success with listed buildings. How could we best strike a balance between preserving historic urban environments and future proofing them for climate change? I will go to Roger Curtis, naturally, for that.

Absolutely. I will pass back to the convener.

Thank you for your helpful response.

We touched on the fact that prepayment customers pay more, which is unfair, and so run the risk of losing their energy supply completely for periods of time. No one should have to experience that. Potentially, there will be elderly people, pregnant women and young children in homes that have no heating at all. More action is needed to protect such people. There have been calls for a social tariff, but the UK Government seems to have dismissed the idea. Do you have thoughts on what more can be done to protect people?

Thank you.

My other questions have already been answered, so, unless any other witnesses would like to comment, I will pass back to the convener.

I thank the panel for appearing before the committee this morning and their responses so far.

Could any improvements be made to creditors’ processes and procedures that would help people who are on low incomes and have debt problems? That question is for Peter Kelly, first of all.

I thank the witnesses for their evidence so far this morning.

Some of the earlier comments touched on the breathing space scheme. Do the witnesses have any further suggestions for reforms or improvements to the processes and procedures that could help people who are experiencing debt and mental health problems? That question goes first to Rebecca Stacey.

Thank you, Rebecca. Time is moving on so, unless any other witnesses want to come in, I will pass back to the convener.

I will follow on from some of those responses. In terms of debt with private creditors, could more responsibility be placed on creditors to flag a potential debt before it gets to crisis point? From looking at debt on, for example, credit cards, credit accounts and catalogues, we know that making minimum payments tends to be a real issue for people. No one who is making a minimum payment for accrued debt is doing that for any reason other than that they are in trouble; no one does that if they can pay the full amount. Creditors allow that to go on endlessly and it becomes a horrible vicious circle, with people not clearing any of the original debt.

On food poverty, people are now getting into debt paying for essential items. Creditors are popping up that enable people to buy shopping on a “buy now, pay later” basis, or to pay for shopping over three payments. I have constituents who are paying interest on food items that they bought nine to 12 months ago. That is shocking.

Are there ways in which we can deal with such situations before they become a problem? Rather than letting it get to the stage of a debt arrangement scheme being needed—a bankruptcy process would probably not be relevant—could we reduce debt by removing a portion of the interest accrued or, as I suggested, by getting the creditor to flag up the matter before it becomes an issue?

It seems that when we get rid of one problem organisation or one of those types of creditor, others pop up. Is there a way in which we could limit them? They tend to focus on and target people on low incomes.

With energy bills and inflation skyrocketing, unchecked by the United Kingdom Tory Government, thousands of parents are having to resort to skipping meals to ensure that their children can get fed. As more and more young families struggle to stay afloat through the cost of living crisis, what further action is the Scottish Government taking to help new parents make ends meet, so that neither they nor their children need to go hungry?

In my constituency, it appears that the local health and social care partnership is not certain how the guidance applies to the reopening of its adult day care centres to pre-pandemic levels. While organisations such as Capability Scotland have reopened their centres to pre-pandemic levels, that has not happened in local authority-run adult day care centres. Can the minister clarify the guidance to which day care centre operators must adhere? I would be happy for the minister to respond to that point in writing, if he wishes to do so.