Chamber and committees

I have one other point, Mr Bain. Perhaps you could comment on that, too, when you come in. The cabinet secretary says that this is a longer-term approach. Does it have to be longer term, or could it be shorter term?

Some of that would appear on a CV, would it not? A good CV would include it. If a pupil had been school captain, for example, they would put that in their CV, so that an employer would know about it. If I were an employer, I would also be interested in the fact that a young person is a carer. For example, if they are caring for a sibling, and when they go home every day they are helping their younger brother or sister with their life, I would want to know that. Would that appear on the leaving certificate?

So, it might take two or three years.

Will you go back to the basics of why we are doing this? Will you explain why the UK Government could not legislate for the whole of the UK and why we are having to do so separately in Scotland?

Do you have a breakdown of the percentage cost that would be contributed?

We will see that in due course. Some of the respondents—in England, Scotland and everywhere—were against the idea of a levy altogether. How would you respond to them?

That is helpful, thank you. Some respondents to the consultation suggested that it would be helpful to have a single central national collection agency for the levy. I understand that, in England, the levy is collected in a piecemeal way, council by council. What are your thoughts on that?

Does that mean that you do not yet know whether the levy would be set at the same level as the levy in England?

We will now look at learner and practitioner involvement. I will ask a few questions, and colleagues will come in after me.

We have heard quite a lot of evidence on this. One of the issues is that there will be interest committees for learners and practitioners. The word “learner” is interesting, because it could mean someone who is quite young or someone who is quite old. In particular, there was concern from the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland that the bill does not specifically say that children should be involved in some way. Do you have any thoughts on that?

I was thinking more of the learner interest committee.