Chamber and committees

Good morning, cabinet secretary. You touched on this in your opening remarks, but what is your response to stakeholders who feel deep disappointment about the decision to delay the bill and say that there has been a betrayal of trust and that they were blindsided by the decision.

I am happy with those answers, convener. Thank you.

Convener, I do not have any questions this morning. Everything that I had has been answered. It has been very comprehensive.

We were disappointed when we received the letter and heard that the bill was not being introduced. What were your initial thoughts when you received the letter or, in Professor McHarg’s case, read the programme for government? How was the communication for you?

Thank you very much for those responses.

Good morning, everyone. I am sorry that I am not with you in person.

Most people have touched on this, but can you provide more in-depth insight into whether there are particular groups or communities that will be negatively impacted by the increase? Perhaps Aaliya can answer first.

In her opening remarks, Aaliya said that further research needs to be done on the impact of the fee increase on human rights. What should that research cover? Is there anything that we have not looked at yet?

Thank you.

Good morning, Jeremy, and good morning, officials. Just to touch on what Paul O’Kane was asking about, I would just note that, when I and my colleague Marie McNair held evidence sessions last week with the Glasgow Disability Alliance, a lot of the people there said that the commissioner did not have enough teeth. They pointed out that there were no enforcement powers and asked why no enforcement powers had been put into the bill to start with. Can you explain to them why they were not put in at the start?

You have talked about potential amendments at stage 2. Do you have anything in mind at the moment that we could look forward to hearing about?