Chamber and committees

We heard from John Blackwood of the Scottish Association of Landlords that its members sought to do that collaborative work with their tenants, and we know that there is a varying picture across the sector, with landlords who are perhaps not involved in that association taking a different approach. What more can the Government do to ensure that the support services on the ground are adequately resourced and that there is clear guidance around what landlords, housing associations, support services in the wider area and, indeed, local authorities can do to work together across the sector to ensure that those pre-action protocols deliver the results that we need in order to prevent homelessness upstream?

That could perhaps be considered in relation to the landlord registration scheme. There might be a role for local authorities in communicating that information to landlords when they register with them—that duty could be placed on local authorities.

My final question, which follows on from Graeme Dey’s comments, concerns a possible unintended consequence of the policy.

We heard from John Blackwood that, if mandatory grounds are removed, landlords might find themselves in difficult circumstances in which the prevention of homelessness for that landlord becomes an issue. For example, they might need the property back because their financial circumstances mean that they have to sell it or move into it. To what extent will the tribunal take cognisance of that fact?

I am the mother of a fourth-year apprentice joiner who, at the height of the pandemic, with countless apprentices throughout the country, was working in a front-line service, turning around void properties and enabling people to move on from homelessness and into a property. Will Jamie Halcro Johnston celebrate those apprentices, who responded in such a fantastic way on the front line?

Our last question on this theme is from my colleague Emma Roddick, who is in the room. We will then move to theme 2 and questions from Marie McNair, who is participating remotely.

I welcome our first panel of witnesses, who are all joining us remotely, as are my colleagues Foysol Choudhury and Marie McNair. I welcome Dr Marsha Scott, chief executive officer of Scottish Women’s Aid; Eilidh Dickson, policy and parliamentary manager at Engender; Davy Thompson, campaign director of White Ribbon Scotland; and Laura Tomson, co-director of Zero Tolerance.

There are a few housekeeping things to note before we get started. For those who are participating remotely, if you want to contribute, please type R in the chat box. I will keep my eye on that. Colleagues, please direct your questions to a particular panel member to get us started. We have only a short time this morning of about an hour for this first panel, and then we have a second panel. I therefore ask panel members to add new and salient points if something has been gone over. Please make sure that we get as much information from you as possible, but that it is new information. Please submit in writing after the meeting anything that you think that we need to hear, and I am sure that we will have some follow-up questions.

We have a number of themes to explore. The first theme is about background and context, our second theme is about prevention work and our third theme is about front-line support and funding. To kick us off, I will hand over to my colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy, who will come in on theme 1.

Good morning, and welcome to the ninth meeting in 2022 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. This morning, we will be talking about domestic abuse and violence against women and girls. As a former front-line women’s aid worker, that is an area close to my heart, and I know that what we will hear today will be very difficult but very necessary for us in our roles. Yesterday, the committee met informally with the Lord Advocate and the national procurator fiscal for domestic abuse, which provided valuable background for this morning’s meeting.

Apologies have been received from Natalie Don, and we welcome our colleague Stephanie Callaghan, who is attending as her substitute.

Our first item of business is a decision on whether to take item 3 in private. Do members agree to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

I see that Marsha Scott would like to comment briefly.

Do you want to come back in, Marie, or have all your questions been answered?

Thank you very much for that. I can see that Davy Thompson wants to come in, too.

We will move on to our final theme, which we have heard a lot already this morning: front-line services and funding. We can run over time a little bit, and Miles Briggs will kick off our questions.