Chamber and committees

It would be helpful if you could outline any concerns that you have about the operation of the proposed cladding assurance register and explain how you think that those concerns could be addressed. That is for Fionna Kell, initially.

To go back to risk assessments and health and safety, is it a question of balancing probabilities and the severity of what could happen if something goes wrong?

It absolutely does. If you are talking about bringing in tolerable risk, are you able to say any more about how that concept might apply to the bill and what that would mean for cladding remediation?

Yes, it does. Thank you—that was really helpful.

Thank you, convener. I was just waiting to be unmuted there.

I am happy for David Jones to answer this. Paul Turnbull and Stefano Pessina have picked up on this point already, so they might be interested in coming in as well. It is about the bill preventing owners from being obstructive and stopping things moving forward. Is there any history or evidence that things have been held up by owners and residents who are being obstructive?

I am happy with that, and it is good that you are going to look at that in more detail.

I want to ask about curriculum content. We heard from Professor Stobart about the fact that we do not learn in a vacuum. He told us:

“We need to have mastery of information, facts and basics in order to be able to think about them and use them.”—[Official Report, Education, Children and Young People Committee, 8 November 2023; c 9.]

Is it the intention of the reviews that more explicit guidance will be provided on the content of the curriculum in the broad general education? What is the role of the Government and its agencies in providing guidance on curriculum content?

It is good to hear that you are looking at that balance. You are absolutely right in what you said.

Will the curriculum review include an on-going focus on wellbeing and, specifically, anxiety? I am interested in whether we can look at imparting knowledge on why young people continue to feel anxious and giving them a deeper understanding of what is going on in their brain that is making them feel anxious, as well as effective tools for tackling that. I suppose that I am talking about early intervention to prevent that from progressing into something more serious.

As a follow-up to that, how big a priority will investment in prevention and early intervention be in your future work with local authorities?

As we all know, such an approach saves us money in the long term, but it should be the outcomes that are being targeted or the targets themselves that set the direction and the focus. How will you ensure that they will be central, as we move forward?

That was helpful. Thank you.