Chamber and committees

I have a very general question that might be more about part 2 of the bill. In response to Jackie Dunbar’s question about patterns of land ownership in the country, Mr Russell referred us to Andy Wightman’s 2024 update to “Who Owns Scotland”.

More generally, what will a successful bill look like in 10 years’ time in relation to the pattern of land ownership in Scotland? Should we still expect to see the same 20 huge companies having the same extremely dense levels of ownership in the country? Should we see land being owned by much smaller concerns? What will success look like in that regard? How can we monitor the impact on tenants and those with smallholdings? Data can be used to show anything. What we are interested in is the impact on the ground and whether the bill improves the quality of experience for individual leaseholders and for communities. What does success look like?

Can I push you on that, Mr Russell? Cross-compliance is not direct compliance. Some family concerns can be very large companies and they might consider it to be cheaper to just pay £5,000 rather than comply fully, which is burdensome.

Could we increase the fine threshold? Could we look at penalties based on turnover of the business?

Thank you.

That is very helpful. I am sure that the committee would welcome being kept updated if there is any detrimental impact. It is clear that the organisation is changing to adapt to additional pressures and financial realities.

Let us look at the five regulatory priorities that have been set by OSCR for 2024 through to 2026. They look pretty clear—dare I say obvious?—in some respects. How were they determined? What progress has been made on the priorities that you have set since their introduction?

Because of time constraints, I will perhaps leave that hanging.

I will ask a final question. [Interruption.] I do not think that I have had much time at all, convener, but I will be brief.

Do senior officers in OSCR analyse the data and make recommendations to the chair and the board on the priorities that are set, or do they give the chair and board options? I am trying to gather how dynamic and vibrant the board is at holding senior management to account in the priorities that it sets.

The reason why I asked is that OSCR is one of the regulators of housing associations. When I meet housing association chairs and board members, I always ask them whether they challenge the senior management of those associations in a positive way. That is a constructive aspect. Thank you for putting that on the record.

Good morning. I am not sure whether I have to declare this but, for transparency, I say that I am a trustee of a small charity called Spirit of Springburn. I have no financial gain from that. My interest is registered under the voluntary category, and I declare it at this point.

Clearly, a significant amount of work will be needed to implement the Charities (Regulation and Administration) (Scotland) Act 2023, and I suppose that that means that there is no business as usual—things have to change and there is an impact on resource. Will one of you give an example of how you have had to change from business as usual to doing something different that will allow you to implement the 2023 act?

That is a helpful and specific example of the impact. I have a follow-up question. What has been the impact on casework? I imagine that the casework teams are left to deal with the same number—or perhaps a greater number—of inquiries with fewer staff.

Before you answer that—because we are time sensitive today—if there are other examples of where there has been an impact, will you put those on the record as well? I will move on to my next question at that point.

There is no question for you to answer, cabinet secretary; I am simply asking you to do something. Mr Simpson mentioned ticketing and the fact that people do not always get the split fare pricing that allows them to get the best deal for tickets. Trainline takes less than a minute to use, and it allows you to add on discount cards. For example, I have a Club 50 railcard, because I am now over 50, which enables me to get a significant discount on rail travel.

When you have those discussions with ScotRail, will you make sure that the technology that it uses—the machines in the stations and so on—allows travellers to access, and promotes, the various discount cards that are available for ScotRail? We are trying to increase revenue, and that is a good way of getting more people to travel.