Chamber and committees

A lot of the points that you raised there will be asked about in later questions, so you should not think that I am ignoring the very relevant points that you made. I am trying to find out whether there are some individuals in the public bodies that are listed who already ask and act where they can. Is this about spreading good practice in a consistent way across all public bodies and across the country, or is this a departure from what currently happens with best practice?

I have a follow-up question for you, Annika. I will then bring in Maeve McGoldrick, in a second, to add to that. I apologise for not bringing everyone in, but I understand that there are time constraints.

Annika, do you think that the list of bodies in the bill needs to be added to?

That is very helpful.

Professor Fitzpatrick, you have also been very patient. I will move on to the next question, but feel free to give us your thoughts on points that have not yet been covered in previous responses.

We should put on the record that some people have said in evidence that they believe that we should not be doing any of this at the moment, but that we should resource the current system better and make it work adequately before we move on to the next thing. I will give you a little health warning in relation to how you answer that, which is that my final question will be specifically about resourcing the new system. However, for now, do you have any thoughts on the view that, instead of taking forward the proposals, we should make the current system work?

My next question is on resourcing, and it would be reasonable to come to John Mills here, given that, although there is supposed to be a statutory duty on other public bodies, we all know that local authorities will be at the centre or the hub of that. One of my colleagues will look into pathways and referrals later, so my question is about resourcing more generally.

Do you have confidence that the proposed measures will be sufficiently resourced, or that the financial memorandum accurately reflects the resources that will be required? I would caveat the question a bit by saying that, if we were going to cost everything to get the ideal system, we would never start it, as that would be overwhelming.

I am conscious that Professor Fitzpatrick spoke about the gradual implementation of what we put in place for priority need. Do we have to be realistic, gradually implementing a better system under the new statutory duties in an incremental way, given what I suppose might be a significant financial burden on a range of public authorities?

I did not mean to take such a length of time to ask that question—I am sorry, Mr Mills—but your thoughts on that would be really helpful.

I hope that other witnesses do not mind that I am focusing on Mr Mills in relation to this point.

This will be my final question, Mr Mills, and I apologise to other witnesses whom I have not been able to bring in on this point.

Should money that comes into the system to deliver on the statutory duties go to each public body to allow them to create their own strategies, or should there be a central resource at, say, local authority level for co-producing what a new service might look like? Do you have any thoughts on that? You could write to us on that, given our time constraints.

That was very helpful.

I am sure that a colleague will come on to the issue of resourcing, in short order. I do not know whether Maggie Brunjes would like to comment before I move on to my next line of questioning.

A suggestion that was made in our session with the first panel is that the Home Office could have a role to play. Obviously, we cannot put a statutory duty on the Home Office, but should it have a role to play?

I had better move on before the convener chastises me for going off on tangents with my scrutiny.

I have a question for Jules Oldham. You might have answered it in part but, given that the issue is so important, I will ask the question again. Can you say more about how the ask and act approach might impact those who are at risk of domestic abuse? You alluded to the dangers of people not being trained properly and so on. What needs to happen to ensure that women are not placed at further risk? Can you say more about your alternative proposals, which you hinted at in your earlier answer?