Chamber and committees

Should we ask the young people themselves?

Yes. Earlier, James, you said that we have to accept that things can go wrong when power is handed down regionally. That makes me think about political and ministerial accountability. What are your thoughts on that? When an aeroplane crashes, a team goes in to look at why that happened. Given your business background, can you say in what kind of direction accountability would not be an issue?

Thank you.

Can you give some examples of things that you would like to see the expansion relating to? Would that be digital, conference venues or anything else that you think would be helpful?

Thank you for coming to the meeting, minister. The bill requires the money that is raised to be spent on services that will benefit the people who visit a local authority’s area for leisure purposes. Why was that requirement included?

We heard from Mirren Kelly that business visitors might have specific requirements around travel. Do you see a need to widen the bill’s objectives to include business as well as leisure? Do the original plans for engagement and the scope satisfy such needs?

I was a local authority councillor. We sometimes find ourselves comparing apples to pears, because authorities measure things according to their own priorities. It would be good to have some comfort that all the participating local authorities will be encouraged to agree on the key data that they are looking at, so that we do not find ourselves in a couple of years’ time looking back and scrambling to find comparable data from across different local authorities.

I thank the panel for being with us today. First, I want to ask about the Verity house agreement. The agreement’s default position is that there should be no ring fencing or direction of funding. How does that marry up, in your view, with the bill’s requirements in relation to how the levy money is spent? I go to Gail Macgregor first.

It is a good indication for the future that the Scottish Government, local authorities and COSLA are looking at it in that way. We have already had some examples of different things that we could do to support visitors in local authority areas. We need to make sure that the spend is focused on people who are visiting for leisure purposes. Are there any other examples of that, and should the objectives be widened to cater for business visitors?

I have to agree, minister. That certainty is important for people.

Can you speak to any lessons that have been learned from the previous council tax freeze? How effective was it in tackling inequality? What evidence do you have on that?

I was a councillor at South Lanarkshire Council until 2021.