Chamber and committees

Good morning and welcome to the third meeting in 2022 of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee. We have received no apologies.

Our first agenda item is a follow-up session on budget scrutiny. I refer members to papers 1 and 2. I welcome our witnesses: Emma Cosgrove, knowledge exchange fellow at the Fraser of Allander Institute; Dr Angela O’Hagan, chair of the Scottish Government equality budget advisory group; and Chris Birt, associate director for Scotland of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Thank you for agreeing to give evidence today—you are all very welcome to the meeting. If you wish to come in on any question, please indicate that by typing R in the chat box and I will bring you in if time is available.?

I invite each of our witnesses to make a short opening statement. We will start with Emma Cosgrove.

I note from the chat function that Angela O’Hagan would like to make a point. Perhaps you would be better to make it now, Angela, to ensure that it is on the record.

Thank you.

Thank you, Emma.

That is great. I thank you all.

Before we go to questions from committee members, I remind folk on the panel that if they want to come in, they should indicate that by typing R. Committee members will indicate which members of the panel they initially want a response from, but if anyone feels that they want to add something in particular, they can put an R in the chat box and I will try to bring them in. We have about an hour for the session.

The first question comes from Maggie Chapman.

I will bring in other members to ask their questions and I hope that we will be able to come back to you if you have a different area that you want to ask about.

I offer a huge thank you to our witnesses. It has been a very helpful session, not just for us as a committee but, I think, for others in the Parliament and elsewhere.

I apologise. That is my fault—I can see that it is typed correctly in my brief.

The next item on the agenda is to take evidence on the Miners’ Strike (Pardons) (Scotland) Bill. I welcome to the meeting Richard Leonard MSP, who is joining us for this item.

I also welcome our witnesses. Nicky Wilson is president of the National Union of Mineworkers in Scotland; Robert Young is a board member of the Coalfields Regeneration Trust; Alex Bennett is a former miner; and Professor Jim Phillips is a professor of economic and social history at the University of Glasgow. For connectivity purposes, Robert Young and Alex Bennett will contribute by audio only.

I refer members to papers 2 and 3 and ask them to indicate which witness they are directing their questions to. We can then open the floor to other witnesses for comments. If other witnesses wish to respond to a question, please indicate that by typing R in the chat function on BlueJeans, and I will bring you in if time permits. Members can also use the chat function on BlueJeans to indicate that they want to ask a supplementary question.

I invite each of our witnesses to make a short opening statement, if they wish to do so. I will start with Nicky Wilson.

Fulton, do you want to hear from someone else as well?