Chamber and committees

I thank the witnesses for their time and their written submissions, and I suspend the meeting briefly so that we can change to the next panel of witnesses.

Is the committee content with the instruments?

Members indicated agreement.

Under agenda item 5, we are considering two instruments, on which no points have been raised.

Is the committee content with the instruments?

Members indicated agreement.

So would the bill stop you from having to say that to clients?

I thank Mike Dailly, Dr Hardman and Dr Patrick for their help. The committee might follow up by letter on any additional questions that stem from the meeting. There are only one or two points thus far, but we might want to do another letter.

I will suspend the meeting to allow a change of witnesses and a five-minute comfort break.

For our second panel, I welcome Myles Fitt, who is the strategic lead for financial health at Citizens Advice Scotland, and Alan McIntosh, who is an approved money adviser at Advice Talks.

I will start off with some of my own questions before I move on to questions from colleagues.

I noticed that the submission from Citizens Advice contains a lot of references to the current cost of living crisis, but the bill as introduced and the financial memorandum indicate that, if the bill is passed, it would not be implemented until 2024. Some of the commentary from Citizens Advice appears to be focused on the present day, and we all hope that we are not still in the current crisis by 2024. Do you accept that, Myles?

Thank you for that. Were the concerns that you just raised, as well as those in your written submission, raised directly with the SLC when it was going through the process and when it produced a draft bill a number of years ago? Did Citizens Advice contact the SLC to raise those concerns?

Is the committee content with the instruments?

Members indicated agreement.

Oliver Mundell has a supplementary question. We will then go back to Bill Kidd.