Chamber and committees

Yes, please.

I will be happy to discuss that; that is fine.

Minister, you mentioned the observatory. Since you brought it up, where are we in that process? What is the status of the observatory at the moment? At what point will we see it having an impact? Those are questions that have been raised with me about the observatory.

John, did you have a question?

Thank you, Shama. We turn to Afam.

Thank you, Justine.

I will go next. I have the pleasure of asking your question, Erika, but is there anything further that you wish to let me know about it or your thoughts around it? You do not have to, but would you like to add something?

Thank you for that, minister. In our communications with members of the panel, and during the participatory process, what has come through is that members of the public do not see the portfolios in silos. Their lives are interconnected, and lots of issues impact on them. There is crossover in all of those—for instance, between housing and education. Their question is about the different portfolios and different departments working together in order to produce a budget that is relevant and appropriate in that way.

Can you or Rob Priestley give us further information about delivering a diverse workforce? I think that the intent behind that question was that a diverse workforce would be reflective of the diversity of the children that those people will work with.

Thank you—that concludes the evidence session. We will take time to reflect on the evidence that we have heard. We will be grateful to accept offers from the members of the panel to supply further information on matters that arose during the session and we look forward to getting that information. We will also write to the Scottish Government in due course. I thank the minister and her officials—Rob Priestley and Fi Robertson—for their attendance.

I have a quick supplementary question. Who is the implementation working group responsible to?

Good morning and welcome to the 20th meeting in 2023 of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. We have received apologies from Annie Wells and Paul O’Kane.

The first item of business is to decide whether to take agenda item 4 in private. Do we agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

Agenda item 2 is pre-budget scrutiny. In this evidence session, we have a citizens panel from the whole family equality project. I refer members to papers 1 and 2.

We all met previously during an engagement session, so I am delighted to welcome you back here. I realise that this setting is more formal than our previous meeting was. I will introduce myself and then invite the other committee members to introduce themselves. My name is Kaukab Stewart and I am the convener of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee.