Chamber and committees

That has been a really positive piece of work—we have developed it and taken it forward, and we have engaged closely with various stakeholders and local authorities on it. That was done on the back of the then Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, saying that he was willing to consider such a policy proposal. Both I and Neil Gray, who was the minister leading on migration at that point, wrote to the UK Government in September last year, but, as yet, we have not had any response.

However, we have had extensive engagement with both the UK Parliament and the Welsh Parliament, and with their committees. We have also engaged with other committees in the Scottish Parliament. The Migration Advisory Committee welcomed the proposal and said that it seemed like a very sensible way forward. It is frustrating, therefore, that we have not had direct feedback and engagement from the UK Government on the proposal. However, all other engagement has been really positive, and the pilot has been widely welcomed.

No.

We are demonstrating that. I categorically refute the suggestion that little progress has been made. We have 13 strategic objectives and more than 100 commitments. I do not think that what has been said is fair to all the teams that are doing work in those different areas.

On total spend and the number of staff, I do not have those figures to hand, but I am happy to supply them.

I do not know whether you are asking for definitive figures. In relation to resource, we were on an emergency footing and—quite rightly—trying to deal with the immediate crises that we faced. It was really important that we did that work. As I said, we pivoted some resource to ensure that we could deal with that as best we could.

That is why what Francesco Sindico highlighted is so important. The challenges must be identified and a baseline picture must be built so that we have something to monitor against. I hope that you can understand that from what is set out in the work on that strategic objective, where you can see the five different projects that have been undertaken. None of them is quick or necessarily easy to do, but they ensure that we are continuing to progress that objective. The project on the existing data indicators framework is trying to see what existing indicators we can use to monitor the framework. All those projects are about ensuring that we are getting the baseline data that will help us to do this effectively.

As Erica Clarkson just outlined, on the basis of the feedback that we had, we worked on the guidance and refreshed it last year. Obviously, the onus is on the 71 relevant authorities that are in the schedule and that must undertake island communities impact assessments. Therefore, the focus has been on how they undertake that work and on ensuring that they meaningfully engage with people who will be impacted by the policies.

That is one area in which we are looking at strengthening the regulatory regime. I do not know whether the officials can give you more of an update on where that work is at at the moment. We have the code of practice that was published in 2021 and introduced essentially for the prevention of escapes. That is work that we need to do and that we will be taking forward. As I said, I do not know whether the officials have any further information.

Of course, we take all recommendations from committee inquiries seriously. We have made significant progress against a lot of the recommendations that have been set out. As I outlined in my response to Christine Grahame, there are a variety of reasons that can lead to the rise in the figures. We are not content with the figures, and I do not think that the industry is content with them either, which is why the work that we are undertaking to try to tackle some of the issues is important.

I have already responded to that in answer to Christine Grahame’s point. I am not content with the figure. We want to see mortalities at their lowest possible level, as I think I have made clear to the committee today. That is why this work is important.

You talked about a jump in the figures. The average number has stayed relatively constant over the past five years. I mentioned a specific example that we believe may have led to an increase in mortalities over the past year, which is why that needs to be investigated. The pieces of work that we are doing are critical in trying to address that. To be crystal clear, we want mortality to be at the absolute lowest possible level. We are not content with the current position, and I do not think that industry will be either. That is why we have to tackle those challenges.

It can vary between 15 per cent and 25 per cent.