Chamber and committees

We have a couple more minutes, so I ask whether there is anything that we have not covered that you want us to hear, Rosemary. In your opening statement, you raised concerns about the increasing complexity of the legislative landscape and said that that could become more labyrinthine for users. Would you like to raise anything on that or on any other issue, so that we are aware of it?

We turn to agenda item 3, which is evidence as part of our ongoing work on understanding barriers to participation in local politics.

The Scottish Government recently published its report, following a demographic survey of local election candidates, and we are joined today by Scottish Government officials Arfan Iqbal, who is the principal researcher in constitution, international and migration analysis, and Maria McCann, who is the head of the elections team. I welcome our witnesses to the meeting. Before we turn to questions from members, I invite Maria to make a short opening statement.

Thank you very much, Maria. We now turn to questions from the committee. I will begin by asking about the overall process. Can you describe to the committee how the data was collected, the project timetable and the roles of local authorities, political parties and the Scottish Government in the data-collection process?

I want to pick up on that, Maria, because you have said a number of times that you do not want to do the survey again on a voluntarily basis. You have asked us, but have you got any thoughts? As a candidate, I would be thinking that I have to fill in papers that I then take to wherever—I cannot remember the name. There are papers that candidates must fill in, so is there something that we could provide so that, when they fill in the papers to register as a candidate, they also give the other information?

That concludes our questions. Is there anything else that you want to make sure that we hear?

Thanks for getting that detail on the record, Willie. I should also point out that we have heard that, in a few days’ time, the delay will be eight months. We hope that, month on month, the delay will become less and less as you get additional resources to take on the work.

I call Marie McNair.

I call Willie Coffey, who has a number of questions.

I was interested in your comment that it might be time for a refresh of the model complaints handling approach.

I call Paul McLennan.

It is useful to hear that there is a potential route. Is there anything other than the human rights bill that could result in your getting the powers in this parliamentary session?

Thank you. It is helpful to hear about the direction of travel for child-friendly complaints and about the complexity and your concern about the impact on the people who use the services. Thank you so much for coming in today—it was good to hear the evidence and to get clarity on some of the details.

I suspend the meeting for five minutes before we move on to our next item of business.