Chamber and committees

I have a brief question about part 4 of the regulations and whether there are any issues that you want to raise in that regard. Do you think that the ambition of creating a more flexible and person-centred approach will be achieved, or are there other issues that the committee needs to hear about and pursue?

Great. Thanks.

Further to the previous question, is the Government looking to expand the information that assessors will be required to provide, so that it includes more than just an address?

Where could Social Security Scotland play a role in this? We have looked at some of the prevention of homelessness duties, for example, and that preventative model being put in. With regard to debt, when people are in contact with organisations such as Social Security Scotland, how can it help? It can at least point towards some of the advice services that are available, but is there a different model? Could it take an early intervention approach to help people?

I do not know whether anyone wants to comment on that.

Good morning. I know that we have covered a lot in relation to council tax but I have a couple of questions. I will start specifically with what the committee has heard about legislation in England. The Local Government Finance Act 1992 gives local authorities in England the discretion to accept reduced payments or to write off debt. Have we seen that applied in any way in Scotland? How could that be replicated to develop a new model to address those two issues?

Turning that argument on its head, in terms of different models, Betty Stone outlined that the main way that people are contacted around this debt and also how it is pursued is through letters. To what extent can we shift towards a preventative model so that such a letter triggers a process such as a financial health check?

We know that council tax is often the last debt that people will pay; it is the one that people feel they can start with not paying instead of not paying rent and so on. Is there a different model to follow? Does anyone have any examples of where different countries are doing things differently and where literacy is one of the key parts of that?

You could perhaps provide further information on that, for us to investigate it and look at it separately. Martin, you mentioned evidence around what you would like to see in a public debt bill. Is there more that we as a committee should consider looking at in relation to that? With the problems that we have discussed this morning, do we almost need a new version of the 1992 act?

We have heard quite a lot this morning about people having debts with different departments in the same council, but those departments not communicating with one another. Does that happen purely because there are different teams? Why, in this day and age, do systems in the same organisation not manage to communicate to flag up debts, enable the creation of a manageable plan for the individual and trigger a referral to support? Are councils developing that, specifically around council tax and rent?

I note that the UK Government has passed on a budget of £97 million to ministers. Why has more progress been made by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in getting that money out there than there has been in Scotland?

How many of the 26 buildings identified in the single building assessment pilot have received payments to enable the assessments to take place?