Chamber and committees

The partnership working that is already taking place in some areas has been pioneering, but that is not the case across the piece in Scotland. Things are working well in some locations, but other communities have a long way to go to catch up. Do you feel that some communities are being left behind?

Given the timescales, are many of the existing policies that the Government has already advanced now at the stage at which they need to be reassessed? You spoke about resource. To make things happen, there perhaps needs to be a refresh as to what can be achieved. The situation becomes worse year on year. Given the amount of resource and staffing that are required, as well as the implementation, some of the policies that you put in place are just not fit for purpose in today’s society and in today’s market, when we are considering how we manage woodland. There has been an erosion in that area, and those policies might have had an impact on that.

As you have indicated, convener, the Scottish Government has said that it does not intend to change the voting system for MSPs. I am not aware that we can, in reality, take any further action on the petition, so we should thank the petitioner and close it under rule 15.7 of the standing orders.

Thank you. Lynne, you spoke about the grass roots and said that there is a lot of disparity in terms of how councils manage things, so is there a difference in terms of how successful the five themes have been in different council areas?

Thank you very much. Time is pressing, and my questions have been answered, but if others want to contribute I am more than happy to give them some time.

Good morning, and thank you for your comments so far.

I want to ask about the plan. As we know, five themes have been drawn out in the plan: accommodation, access to public services, better incomes, tackling racism and discrimination, and better representation. Davie Donaldson talked about the rhetoric. It is good to have all of those themes, but not all of them are working at the same level across the sector. What do you think will develop in the long term? At the moment, the biggest issue that is facing any individual is probably the cost of living crisis, which has a massive impact on all those themes.

It would be good to hear about priorities. Is any one of the themes seen as having a higher priority than the others or as overtaking the others in terms of the progress that is being made on it, or are they simply running in parallel with one another? Perhaps we can hear from Davie Donaldson first, as he has already expressed some very strong views on the matter.

Suzanne, in your opening remarks, you talked about frustrations in the sector. It would be good to hear your views on how the themes are being managed. Is there, for example, frustration with the process for developing long-term access?

Good morning, Callum. You did a long walk to raise some funds to make sure that you could buy some bottles for your school. Where did you walk and how long was it?

That is a fantastic amount of money. Who went with you on the walk?

That is excellent. Now that you have done that, you want us to make sure that everybody can get a bottle.