Chamber and committees

We need to make some progress. I call Colin Beattie.

Murdo Fraser also has questions about energy security.

But we are not moving at a fast enough pace for that to be in place by spring 2025. There will be a period when we will still—

I am sorry, but I want to make progress.

Committee members will ask some more questions on that area. We move on to questions from Colin Beattie.

Thank you. We will make some progress. I call Colin Beattie.

Do you know whether the breathing space in England and Wales comes with a register of people who have accessed the mental health moratorium?

In England and Wales, the breathing space protects people from eviction and extends to preventing enforceable action against someone who is jointly and severally liable for a debt. There is no proposal to include that in the Scottish moratorium.

I realise that the issue of prepayment meters is reserved, but have you given any consideration to how any moratorium would affect those meters? The question is about a creditor’s ability to force a household to use a prepayment meter. Is that something that you are aware of or have considered? I realise that that is a reserved matter, but has there been any discussion with the United Kingdom Government about preventing that?

Thank you.

The other issue is around calls to reform diligence against earnings. The minister has recognised that we are in a cost of living crisis and the Government previously increased to £1,000 the threshold for bank accounts. He knows that there are calls for a similar move to be introduced for earnings, so that there would be a £1,000 threshold before money could be seized.

I suspect that the minister is going to tell me about stage 3 of the review, but we heard in evidence that, for some people, that is too long to wait. There are people in desperate situations and the amount that is able to be arrested from earnings is causing additional pressures on them. We are not talking about people in wealthy households. It is about whether we can increase to £1,000 the amount that is protected.

There have also been calls for flexibility. I cannot remember, because I did not write it down but I think that, at the moment, the protected amount is about £656. For the creditor, perhaps there could be some flexibility, rather than there being a set amount. There are calls for that to be done, and the bill is an opportunity to do something about it rather than wait until stage 3 of the review has concluded. We have increased the threshold for bank accounts, so that change would bring earnings in line with bank accounts. The arguments for the bank account threshold to be increased that were made at the time also apply to earnings arrestment.