Chamber and committees

I want to go off at a tangent here.

Would the sector be supportive of the Scottish Government’s battle with the UK Treasury to get longer-term funding to achieve that?

One of the things that is highlighted in the communication that you have sent to the committee is a lack of consistency. You highlight that in relation to sustainable housing on release for everyone—SHORE—standards. You have stated that there is best practice out there, but, quite frankly, those of us around the table know that in some places the practice is pretty abysmal. How will you ensure that uniform consistency and good practice are implemented through the bill and regulation?

As a final point, one thing that happened during the Covid emergency was folk just getting on with it and making sure that they met people’s needs. How do you make sure that that ethos carries on, and have you looked at what happened during Covid to shape the bill and the regulation to be the best that it possibly can be?

You said that you have talked to a lot of people, which is not a bad thing—talking and listening is good—but have you and ministerial colleagues instructed the Scottish Prison Service to ensure that best practice is exported across the Scottish prison estate?

When I was a minister, I used to get into trouble for being derogatory about the bean counters.

Mr Bruce, do you want to add anything?

Grand. Does anyone else want to come in on that? I am taking it that you are all answering yes.

I am going to try to pin you down, minister. At one point, in answer to Marie McNair, you said that we must ensure that legislation and regulation are embedded. What are you doing to ensure that legislation and regulation are embedded and that folk comply with legislation, in order to help those victims?

Given the huge emphasis being placed on the summer engagement in this morning’s meeting, it would be useful if the committee could get a flavour of what that engagement will actually involve. By the sound of it, it will be a key element of how you move forward. It would be fair to say that some of the folks from whom the committee has heard feel that there has been a fair degree of engagement already, although more is required, while others feel that the engagement has not been of the right sort. Therefore, it would be a good idea for the committee to have a flavour of what that engagement will involve and how it will be carried out. I wonder whether the minister can agree to that.

Good morning to the minister and his team. The bill is an extremely important piece of legislation and I am sure that everyone wants to make it successful. To do so will be a tribute to Marion Gibbs, who worked in the civil service on homelessness for a very long time. A fitting tribute to her would be to get this absolutely right.

Minister, you talked about the prevention review group and about engaging and continuing to talk with stakeholders—listening, of course, being as important as talking. However, one thing that you cannot do is legislate for cultural change. In the short time that I have been back on the committee, we have heard from some folk that a culture change is required. How will you ensure that, as well as making legislative and regulatory change, you change cultures so that we get this right for people?

Speaking to people is fine, and listening to people is important, but doing so does not necessarily mean change.

I want to ask about cross-Government working, because the issue is covered by a lot of portfolios. What do you have in place at the moment, beyond the likes of the prevention review group? What do you have at a ministerial, cross-Government level to make sure that all of this works?