Chamber and committees

I am aware of time. We have about 20 minutes left for this conversation, and there are a number of questions. I invite colleagues to direct their questions to specific people, and I ask panel members to keep their answers as succinct as possible. The answers have been fantastic up to now. It is very important for us to hear everything, and I do not want to restrict you in any way, but we want to make sure that we cover all the questions.

We have lost our connection to Shaun Macaulay. Let us go to Euan Jardine.

I think that James Stockan would like to come in on that. Ask your question, Marie, and then we will loop him in.

I had wanted to bring in Shaun Macaulay, but he is not online—we had him back, but he has gone again—so I will bring in James Stockan to respond to the previous question and this one, too.

That was indeed an interesting part of our discussion. We have only a couple more questions to go. It is half past 10, so I trust that it is okay if we go on for maybe five or 10 more minutes.

I call Paul McLennan.

That brings us to the end of our questions and to the end of a good discussion that leaves me with your requests for flexibility, certainty and a reduction in bureaucracy. It has been really good to hear from you about the new deal for local government and to get into some of the detail in that respect. It has also been helpful to hear you talk about specific details and to get an understanding of the nuances across councils. It is clear that you are all working in very different circumstances.

I thank the panel for their evidence, and I suspend the meeting for five minutes to allow for a change of witnesses.

Do you have any understanding or sense of why there are so many examples of things being brought forward and councils not being included?

Thanks, Shona. Can you go a little bit deeper into that? I am interested to hear how a new deal would support the six outcomes that are set out in your new five-year plan.

We will move on to our final area of questioning from Mark Griffin, who is joining us online.

Cleland Sneddon wants to come in on that.