Chamber and committees

We have referred back to previous recommendations, to the committee that you were on, Mr Carlaw, and to the Finance Committee in 2006, I think it was. The recommendations that were made at the time seem to be fairly clear—in 2006, 2008, 2009 or whenever. Why do you think that they have been ignored?

I am struggling to work out a neat and tidy way of going ahead with everything that will please people.

I am leaning towards the idea of the Scottish Human Rights Commission being given more powers and towards the suggestion of having a rapporteur or lead model, with someone leading on children, someone else leading on animals, someone leading on older people and so on. I have had a little experience of rapporteurs at United Nations level. They seem to be pretty effective and they write reports that have quite an impact.

Would it be easier for the corporate body to work with that model and to deal with an enlarged SHRC, instead of with all the commissioners?

I suppose that that is democracy.

Is it the case, then, that if we do not legislate by 2026, whatever the committee decides will be forgotten about?

If I cannot ask you, I cannot think who else I would ask.

My understanding of the rapporteur model is that someone might be appointed for, say, five years. There might be an emphasis on children for five years and then perhaps an emphasis on older people.

Liz Smith suggested that we could somehow freeze the system, so the present unfairness would carry on but we would at least stop more unfairness coming in. We heard Age Scotland and others saying that if children need a commissioner, older people need one too—although it has to be said that older people have a vote. I am reluctant to go down that route and will not ask your opinion.

I understand that the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee has been considering the role of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and the possibility of a review. The suggestion was made that the Government was not particularly keen on having a review. Should it be the Government that reviews all the bodies, or should it be someone else?

There was a fear that some issues, such as autism, would get lost in a huge human rights commission. That may be not so much a question for you as for the committees.

I am going to ask about targets. I think that 26 per cent of children are living in poverty at the moment, in Scotland, but we are meant to be hitting a target of 18 per cent by 2023-24 and 10 per cent by 2030-31. You have all said that the picture is much more complicated than that, but in politics that is the only number that matters, because it is the only one that politicians talk about. Based on that statistic, it appears that the Scottish child payment has not had a huge impact. Dr Stone, you talked about not having a narrow view, but politicians do have a narrow view. How can we tackle that?

I will leave it at that, because I think that Bob Doris will go into that space, too.

Well, is it a worry or not? I do not know.