Chamber and committees

Thank you to all three of you for your opening statements. I will kick off with a question about the legislative context. My colleagues Pam Gosal and Rachael Hamilton are interested in the impacts of the bill, so they will come in quickly after me.

The Scottish Government has said that the bill will amend the powers and duties of the Scottish ministers to provide support and assistance to victims and potential victims under the Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015. However, the committee has heard concerns that the bill will exacerbate exploitation and trafficking in Scotland. How are victims of human trafficking and exploitation currently supported in Scotland? Will the bill make their situation worse?

Thank you for that. That gives us more information to go on. We will follow up on that.

That concludes our formal business. I thank all our witnesses for their attendance and their valuable contributions.

I welcome our next panel of witnesses. Gayle Findlay is policy manager at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, and joins us remotely; Thomas Glen is chief executive of Perth and Kinross Council, and is also online; Dr Nina Koruth is consultant clinical psychologist at Glasgow psychological trauma service in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and is with us in person; Louise Long, who is chief executive of Inverclyde Council is with us in person; and Susanne Millar, who is chair of the Scottish asylum dispersal partnership board and chief officer of Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership joins us remotely. I am aware, Susanne, that you will have to leave slightly before the end of our allocated time.

I welcome all of you and thank you for coming. I invite each witness to make very brief opening remarks if they wish, after which we will move to questions.

Thank you.

You have frozen.

In the interest of time, I ask you all to be as succinct as possible in your answers. Louise Long indicated that she wanted to come in, and I am aware that Susanne Millar also wants to come in.

Thank you for making that important point.

My next question is not just directed at you; Susanne Millar might be in a good position to answer, too. The money for asylum seekers and refugees all goes to Mears. None of it goes to local authorities, but they provide all the peripheral services that are required. Is that correct? A brief answer would be absolutely fine.

It is fantastic that councils are doing that, but my point is that they are not getting any of the money that is allocated for that.

I saw Thomas Glen nodding his head. Was that in agreement that you do not receive any funds?

I invite the committee to agree to delegate to me the task of publishing a short factual report on our deliberations on the affirmative Scottish statutory instruments that we have considered today. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.