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That is a good question. There are two main strands to the work to increase accountability for human rights under the bill. The first involves establishing an approach that shares human rights leadership and responsibility among several bodies. We therefore propose expanding the powers and remits of a number of bodies, including the Scottish Human Rights Commission, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and other oversight bodies. Our hope is that that will strengthen their ability to provide accountability and support for human rights in Scotland.

The second strand of the work involves developing measures that will enable courts and tribunals to deliver effective and appropriate remedies when it is found that a duty bearer has failed in its duty under the bill regarding protected rights. Before the summer, we will publish a discussion paper that will set out in greater detail our approach to policy in the bill.

Thank you for that. I understand what you are getting at, and you have covered a lot of areas there.

To be very clear, the Scottish Government procures certain services from organisations, including in the third sector, and they are monitored. There is day-to-day funding governance through Inspiring Scotland, and third sector bodies are covered by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, so there is thorough scrutiny and governance.

At this time, there are certain groups of people, including transgender people, who are feeling particularly vulnerable. I have had questions from you about some of those organisations before. For instance, we fund a suicide helpline; the funding is there to provide a service that people need in order to be able to deal with mental health issues regarding their protected characteristics. We procure specific services in that regard, so it is not a question of funding any particular type of ideology.

I will bring in Cat McMeeken to give a little bit of further detail.

To give you a specific answer and make sure that we get it technically correct, I will pass that on to Cat McMeeken.

I am not sure that I have the scope to do that. We have a robust process—there is an accountable officer involved and Inspiring Scotland are the people who do that impartially; they have that impartial judgment. Perhaps Cat McMeeken can explain how that actually works.

You said it very well. You will be fully aware that the plan will be all of those things, but the most important thing is embedding a human rights approach across everything. That is the cultural change that has to happen, which is why I talked about participation, consultation and collaboration, which are really important. It will involve not just the Scottish Government in that sense, but public bodies and a wide variety of stakeholders. It is important for that approach to be embedded from the get-go, so that that is the starting point. We need to take people with us in order to do that.

The tracker tool will be open and available to the committee and members of the general public. It will be able to track the progress that is being made across all the duty bearers. It will provide accountability, transparency and tracking, which is to be welcomed. It is not just a tool for us; we will not be marking our own homework. It is a tool that is available for everyone to use to hold us to account as well as everyone else who is responsible for the implementation of those rights.

Yes, I can give an overview, and then perhaps the convener will be minded to allow Alexandra Devoy to come in on that, as she has been working on the tool quite closely.

As I mentioned in my opening remarks, a design group has been convened that consists of stakeholders with expertise in human rights monitoring and implementation. In recognition of the crucial role that the Parliament plays in implementation and scrutiny, Scottish Parliament officials are members of the design group. The Scottish Government and delivery partners are working with a view to launching an initial product by March 2026, following engagement with stakeholders, but that is subject to the technical and functional specifications being deliverable.

One of the intended outcomes of the human rights tracker is to improve transparency by creating a tool that is open and publicly accessible. In turn, it will support civil society and the Scottish Parliament to monitor and interrogate processes and hold the Government to account in order to drive improvement and policy resilience.

Undoubtedly, that is a complex area, and we continue to work through it. For instance, the UK Supreme Court’s 2021 judgment on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill highlighted the complexities of human rights incorporation in a devolved context. We want to work with the UK Government to explore those complexities in relation to the scope of the duties that we propose in the human rights bill.

In March, the centre for public policy at the University of Glasgow hosted an event that brought together academics, officials and other interested actors from Scotland and across the UK to discuss issues that have arisen from the 2021 Supreme Court judgment, including the incorporation of human rights. We will continue to work with the UK Government and provide further updates in due course.

It remains our intention to introduce the human rights bill in the next parliamentary session—subject to the outcome of the 2026 election, of course. In the meantime, before the summer recess, in order to facilitate further extensive engagement with stakeholders, we will publish a discussion paper that sets out our proposed approach to the bill.

I understand your frustration. The enforcement lies with the EHRC. You are right to point out that there was an interim update but that guidance has not been issued. The EHRC is working at pace and I believe that it will issue its guidance towards the end of June. In the meantime, the Scottish Government is reviewing a wide range of areas—I think that Cat McMeeken specified all of them. That will enable us to be in a state of readiness so that, when the EHRC issues its guidance, we will be able to move forward at pace.

We are identifying the six priority groups that are at the highest risk: lone parents, minority ethnic families, families with disabled adults and children, families with young mothers who are under 25, families with children under one and larger families such as those with three children or more. We are focused on supporting those groups because we know that 90 per cent of all children in poverty live within those six priority family types. We are building our knowledge and understanding of the barriers to moving out of poverty that those families face.

Of course, there is also intersectionality across those groups. For instance, an ethnic minority family might have three or more children and one of those children might also be disabled.