Chamber and committees

I am happy to make a commitment that we look at it and engage with the committee to see where we are with everything.

Tom Arthur is the minister who will know about the detail of the Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill. On the whole, we generally try to engage with as many stakeholders as possible on any bill. The last thing that the Government needs is a stakeholder coming to us further down the line when we are drafting legislation and telling us that the proposed legislation will make things really difficult for them or that something will not work the way in which we want it to work. It is only right that a Government should engage with all the stakeholders and make sure that it gets the information that it needs. If there is an issue with that, I am happy to talk to Mr Arthur about that detail and take it from there.

The Government always intends to ensure that because, from a practical point of view, it is better for us to know where we stand.

We are undertaking a review of information sharing. We hoped to have progressed it more than we have so far, but we are aiming to engage shortly with parliamentary officials with a view to establishing a short-life working group to seek their input on it. We are at the stage where we will be engaging with parliamentary officials to bring that to the next stage.

We probably hoped to be a lot further on than we are but, unfortunately, for various reasons, we are just a wee bit behind where we should have been.

I can see how certain members of the committee would look at a framework bill and think that, but the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill is about co-design. It is a new way of thinking about how we design policy, a process and a system. The bill gives us the flexibility that the Government needs to do that so that we can get engagement with stakeholders and those who use the systems and processes that you and the convener have been talking about with the Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill, and so that we can get their expertise at that level.

I can understand, from the point of view of a member of this committee, how some would cynically think that it is a power grab by the Government to do what it wants when it wants, but that is not what this is about. It is never about that anyway, but this is about ensuring that, on the national care service, all stakeholders have had all kinds of engagement and helped us to co-design the service.

I have not had a chance to look at the committee’s report on the bill, but I am sure that the minister, Kevin Stewart, will have a look at it and that he will probably be in touch. He has already spoken to this committee and emphasised again how important it is that he works with the committee. He wants to work with you to ensure that the bill and the national care service are all that they can possibly be.

I do not believe so, having been a member of this committee. I do not see that anything disappears, Mr Mundell. Everything gets looked at and debated. I really believe that this is the best way forward for this specific process. However, I will look at your committee’s report. As I said, I have not had a chance to do that yet. I believe that it was published only on Thursday or Friday last week, so I have not yet had a chance to read it, but I will look at it and take it from there.

I will bring in Susan Herbert to answer that.

I will get Susan Herbert to answer that, if that is okay.

I would be unable to give you any kind of idea of whether it would be next week, next year or two years down the line because, currently, that is the way things are. It would be a problem to commit myself at this stage. I am quite happy to look at it and try to see how long it might take, but it would be very difficult for me to give you any kind of timescale because of the way things are at the moment with the relationship.

It is hard to give you that level of detail. We will try to work with this committee in particular to ensure that you are aware of anything that is coming through. It would be difficult for me to commit myself at this stage. I would be guessing and trying to pin the tail on the donkey if I said that I could work out when that date would be. As soon as we have further information, I will be happy to share that with the convener.