Chamber and committees

That is the perfect spot to stop and take a break. I will suspend the meeting for five minutes, if that is okay for everybody. If you need to dip away—we have asked our witnesses to be here for two hours—please let the clerks know if you are not able to stay for the whole of the next session.

I will pick on somebody. Paul Ferguson has put an R in the chat function. I think that that was for the previous question, but I ask him to comment.

We now turn to our next item of business, which is an evidence session on our inquiry into low income and debt problems. So far, we have run sessions with our experts by experience panel, who have been sharing their lived experience of debt with the committee. We also held formal evidence sessions on 28 April and 12 May. Today, we will hear from a large panel of witnesses to discuss a range of arrears.

Online, we are joined by: Paul Ferguson, member and association executive of the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation, and revenues and benefits manager at Falkirk Council; Gordon MacRae, assistant director of communications and advocacy at Shelter Scotland; and Kirsty McKechnie, early warning systems project manager at the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland. In the room with us are: Betty Stone, convener of the Edinburgh Tenants Federation; Karen Carrick, evaluations manager at the Improvement Service; and Martin Canavan, head of policy and participation at Aberlour. Good morning, everyone, and thank you very much for making yourselves available.

I will highlight a few housekeeping points to kick us off. We have a large panel and the issues that will be raised will be cross cutting. Given your areas of expertise, you might not need to contribute to all points raised. We are here for two hours, and we will have a wee break in the middle—I think that we will need it. Do not feel compelled to speak to every point that we raise. You can always follow up in writing, if you think that there is something that we need to know.

If you are in the room, please indicate that you want to come in by raising your hand. If you are on BlueJeans, type R in the chat box. I will be keeping an eye on that, so that I can bring you in as well. I ask that you give our broadcasting colleagues a wee second to turn on your microphones before you start speaking. I will not forget the comfort break at 10 o’clock, because I think that we will all need one by then.

I turn to questions—we have a lot of them. I will ask members to speak in turn. The first question is from Paul McLennan, who is in the room. Paul will be followed by Jeremy Balfour.

Yes—that scheme has been operational for 90 years.

I want to contrast that with the very complex system that we have in the UK, which relies heavily on gas. Today, Sky News has reported that we are in the perverse situation of having a glut of gas in the UK, because we cannot get it to market. The pipes to supply liquid gas to Europe are at full capacity and we have no storage in the system. We have infrastructure and pipeline issues.

Given that the wholesale price has bottomed out, it seems perverse that people are going to be paying huge amounts for their electricity and their gas during the coming months. It seems as though the system is not responding in real time to what we are seeing on the ground. How would you respond to that?

The fact that the glut of gas that we have at the moment is not reflected in the prices being paid by people who cannot afford to top up their meters must be very hard for them to swallow.

My final question, which is one that I have asked previous witnesses in the past few weeks, is about disaggregated gender data. I recognise that you might not be able to provide an answer. The likes of Engender and Close the Gap have said in evidence to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee that fuel poverty is very much a gendered issue.

Women who are predominantly lone parents, carers or in precarious employment are facing the worst consequences of the cost of fuel crisis. What data does the Scottish Government hold on gender, and how is it being used to create the policy in response to fuel poverty? I understand that you might not be able to answer that question today, but the committee would certainly be keen to hear your response.

Thank you, cabinet secretary.

It might be very helpful for the committee.

Thank you for allowing me to appear at the committee with my Social Justice and Social Security Committee hat on.

We have already heard about the Canadian model of hydroelectricity. As someone who grew up in Canada, I could not fail to understand that. The Galloway hydroelectric scheme in my constituency is fed in part by Loch Doon. It was built back in 1930 and has been happily supplying environmentally friendly electricity—

Yes. We have the ports and the pipelines to get the liquid gas to where it needs to be, but the system is operating at full capacity and we have no storage capacity.

Thank you. Pam Duncan-Glancy, do you have another question?