Chamber and committees

Jim, you mentioned the citizens assembly that you have. How does that shape policy in your area, and how do you get to the harder-to-reach groups to ensure that you hear not only from the community groups that we all know about but from people outwith those groups to influence policies in your area?

So what do we need to do to change that?

My colleagues are going to ask some questions about how local authorities engage with the UK Government and the Scottish Government, but I want to talk about how councils engage with communities. Stuart Bews and Jim Grant, what changes have your local authorities made to the ways in which you engage with communities as we begin to address the need for a just transition?

I was at a table this morning with a group of people from Torry. I will not say which part, but I will say that there was a general feeling that communities do not feel that the local authority is engaging them enough to allow them to shape the transition at the local authority level. What sort of changes have local authorities made to try to engage people in that, or what do they plan to do in the future?

You will be pleased to know that there will be lots of questions on the fund shortly.

I just want to follow up on a point that Alasdair Ross touched on about community engagement. What struck me at this morning’s excellent session with community groups was the huge amount of fantastic work that is taking place across communities, but you seem to be suggesting that communities do not feel sufficiently empowered to shape just transition in the north-east. Can you say a bit more about that? Are there any good examples of that empowerment that we can take away? What needs to be changed to involve communities better?

I do not want to put you on the spot but, when you deal with clients, what proportion of them will have a compulsory treatment order and what proportion will have a mental health issue that is clearly impacting on their management of debt, but no compulsory treatment order?

Just one has a compulsory treatment order.

The vast majority do not have that.

That is very helpful.

That is very helpful. I do not know whether Natalia Mendel or Alan McIntosh wants to add anything to the position that Joe McMonagle has outlined.