Chamber and committees

Can you say anything about how the funding would be distributed among local authorities? If you had a few years with nobody from, say, Shetland needing the changed service, would that mean that Shetland would get no money for those years? If Glasgow had more of its share of young people, would it get a bit more money?

Is it just inevitable that there has to be compromise on these things?

I get that. There are some general problems out there.

I also want to touch on what we can learn from other countries—the international aspect. First, I am not sure whether the phrases that you have used—“international steering group”, “international reference group” and “international advisory panel”—refer to the same body.

Between you, you have.

For clarification, you said that next time, we would hope to have a vaccine within 100 days.

One of my colleagues will be on about data shortly.

Where should we look to? Singapore was mentioned. Is it a good example of being prepared for the next pandemic? Can you point us to any other countries that are really on top of things?

I do.

We have already established that I am the oldest member of the committee, yes.

First, I will follow up on one or two points that Professor Evans made. In answer to Murdo Fraser, you made the point that decisions were made quicker during Covid, and that that was generally a good thing. The Finance and Public Administration Committee is looking at how Government makes decisions. On the one hand, we were told that decisions were made better and quicker during Covid, but the counter to that, especially from Engender, the women’s group, was that there was a lack of consultation and that women suffered through the pandemic in a variety of ways because we had not spent the time to think through policies—maybe we did not have the time to do that. How do you react to that comment?