Chamber and committees

You have highlighted that it is not easy. If it was easy, we would have sorted these issues by now, so it is going to be complex.

Tomas, you talked about the need to have disabled people very clearly involved. If we think about how the landscape works and consider the potential for duplication and overlap, how easy is it for disabled people and the people that Deaf Action works with to navigate the existing landscape, before we think about having a new disability commissioner?

That is helpful. I will leave it there.

Thanks, Amy. I will delve a little bit deeper. You said in your response that there are many other commissioners and statutory bodies, as well as legislation that is clearly failing. You talked specifically about the need to have mechanisms that will have an impact. Will you elaborate on that? Why are all those statutory bodies and commissioners failing? Is it purely about resource or is there something else going on?

Thanks, Amy.

Richard, I will ask you the same question about the cluttered landscape and duplication.

You talked earlier about the commissioner—as an advocate and as the point of focus, if not the point of contact, for disabled people and others—potentially having a unifying role. Are there challenges in that regard, given how diverse disabled communities are? Even in relation to RNIB Scotland’s work, there is diversity among the people whom you support. How do you see one person—or one commissioner’s office, because it would not be just one person—being able to deal with that diversity?

In your opening statement, you talked about the importance of intersectionality in Deaf Action’s work. Can you say a little more about how we can ensure that we embed intersectionality in how we think about the disability commissioner and the broader landscape?

Thank you, convener. I probably should have done this at the start of our evidence taking. Just so that folks are aware, I note that I used to work for a vision impairment organisation of which the Royal National Institute of Blind People Scotland was a member—the Scottish Council on Vision Impairment. That was about a decade ago.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. For some reason, my app did not work. I would have voted yes.

Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?

I put on record that the Scottish Greens will be supporting the instrument at decision time, because we, too, are concerned about the safety and wellbeing of our prisoners and the people who work in our prisons.

I ask the cabinet secretary to say a bit more about the modelling. What modelling has been done on the impact of the regulations, particularly on the safety and wellbeing of women and other vulnerable prisoners?