Chamber and committees

That is helpful. I will move on to pensions with Mr Fairs. You seem positive that even somebody with a small pension pot could take some money out of it, which would give them a bit of flexibility in their later working life. The Trades Union Congress has said, to counter that, that it would lead to people being in poverty once they retire. Are people who are in their 50s and 60s getting the advice that they need, and how does that compare with other countries? Do we have more flexibility in those areas than other countries have?

Do you think that that will become clear over time, or will it be like the situation with ME, which, as some ME people would claim, has still not really been pinned down after 30 or 40 years?

Can I just press you on an issue, Professor McCartney? You have said a few times now that a number of health issues are linked to austerity and economic factors, but is it not the case that certain issues—obesity, say, and perhaps mental health—are also very much seen in better-off parts of the population and, despite that, we have not been able to pin them down and sort them out?

That is interesting. That recognition that, for some people it is better to be out of work while for some it is better to be in work, is a more nuanced approach than we sometimes get. We were talking about mental health in the previous session. Presumably, for some people, their mental health problem is that they are working too many hours and have a bad work/life balance, and that could improve by them either reducing their hours or leaving the workforce.

On your point about workers coming through, given that our population is forecast to fall, does that have to mean bringing people in from other countries to bolster our workforce or are there other answers to that question?

People deliberately went into city centres to shop and to go to cinemas and restaurants.

Building on some of the things that have already been discussed, I believe, Professor Sheikh, that you said that we can compare mental health in Scotland and Singapore. Can we also compare, say, long Covid numbers in Scotland and France, economic inactivity and so on? Are the definitions for all those things the same in different countries?

A lot of comparisons and similarities have been drawn between ME and long Covid. To be fair, I think that we have struggled over the years to get a definition of ME, and GPs seem to vary quite a lot in that respect. Is it fair to compare the two?

Professor McCartney, did you want to come in on this question?

I think that highlighting that irony is good evidence, but can I press you on that? Is there any sign of employers now thinking differently? We hear that a lot of employers are struggling to get staff, which suggests that they might be more adaptable to taking on people with long-term conditions and disabilities. Do you think that that is happening?

I want to follow up on some of those points. Tom Waters, you said that the definition of economic activity is well defined and very much agreed on between countries. My understanding is that, to be economically active, you only have to work one hour a week, which surprised me somewhat because I would have thought that one hour a week and zero hours a week were much the same, whereas 35 hours is quite different. Is that correct?