Chamber and committees

Thank you.

I have a colleague who will go further into the language issue, so we will come back to that. Rachael, do you want to ask about anything in this area?

I would like to get some clarity on children in hotels. I think that it was last week that Andy Sirel from JustRight Scotland mentioned in his evidence that unaccompanied children were housed in a hotel, which he did not locate geographically. Gayle, can you give me an idea of what Andy Sirel was referring to? Can you shed any light on that? How many unaccompanied children are local authorities dealing with? Are they mainly in hotels, or have they gone on to dispersal accommodation?

Can I just interject? Susanne Millar has indicated that she would like to come in, and I would like to bring her in now, before she has to leave for another meeting.

I want to pick up on a couple of points for clarity. We have heard that sometimes we get lots of notice, but Thomas Glen said that there was two days’ notice of the arrival of asylum seekers and refugees. I am not sure who is best placed to answer this, but have there been instances when it has been less than that? I have heard anecdotally that some authorities have had about 12 hours’ notice of a hotel being used for asylum seekers and refugees. Gayle, can you give me an idea of what the shortest and longest periods of notice have been?

Maggie Chapman is online today.

I have a supplementary question. It is brilliant that you are providing those services. Who is paying for that? Which budget is that coming out of?

That completes our consideration of the instruments. I thank the minister and her officials for attending.

We will have a brief pause before moving on to the next item.

Our next agenda item is the continuation of evidence taking as part of our inquiry on asylum seekers in Scotland. This morning, we will hear from two panels. I welcome our first panel: Bronagh Andrew, operations manager at TARA—the Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance; and, from Police Scotland, Superintendent Claire Dobson from the partnerships, prevention and community wellbeing division, and Chief Inspector Elaine Tomlinson from the safer communities team, greater Glasgow division. You are all very welcome.

I refer members to papers 2 and 3. After the witnesses have made their opening statements, I will invite members to ask questions. I ask Bronagh Andrew to go first.

Thank you, Thomas. I will give the last word to Dr Koruth.