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:Ms White, I am always delighted to meet with any colleague and with any member of this committee.

:We continue to make good progress on further developing and refining our human rights bill proposals. Our goal is to introduce an ambitious and effective bill that brings positive change. In July last year, we were pleased to publish the detailed discussion paper on our proposals for the bill. That paper consolidates the extensive work that has been undertaken to date, and we are supporting further engagement with stakeholders.

We continue to test and refine the proposals and to work through the implications for further incorporation legislation, building on lessons from the Human Rights Act 1998 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Act 2024. As the committee is aware, the UK Supreme Court 2021 judgment on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill and the European Charter of Local Self-Government (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill has implications for the potential scope of the proposed duties under the human rights bill, and we continue to use this time to chart a way forward on that. The committee has been kept informed on the work that we have undertaken to develop the proposals, and we will continue to provide updates to the relevant committees following the 2026 election.

It is worth noting that, when the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and I met the Council of Europe’s Commissioner on Human Rights, the commissioner described our incorporation agenda as an impressive body of work that will also be of interest to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

:I totally acknowledge that. As you will be well aware, the equality and human rights fund supports highly valued projects that are tackling some of the most systemic discrimination and prejudice, and some of the projects that have been funded have a specific focus on community relations, which you referred to. The Scottish Government has provided £36 million—the actual number is £36,843,807—between 2021 and 2026.

One example of our acceptance of the need for sustainable, multiyear funding is the commitment to provide multiyear funding to disabled people’s organisations. That has been funded through the EHRF and will be subject to the proposed bill being passed, but I hope that that example of our commitment shows that we are making progress in that area.

:Thank you. I did not quite catch the second bit, but maybe you could come back in with a wee reminder for me.

I previously mentioned the coming home agenda. I just want to reiterate that the Scottish Government is committed to the coming home agenda. We accept that it is completely unacceptable that people are spending time in hospitals or other care settings when they are medically fit for discharge. We know that, for every unnecessary day they spend in hospital, people lose a part of their connection with their community, their family and their friends.

The Scottish Government has provided over £20 million of funding to integration authorities through the community living change fund, as well as other funding. That has had a real impact on support for people to move into the community. We are doing a final review of the impact of that funding, as we want to make sure that it is having the impact that we want it to have.

The Scottish Government and COSLA jointly established a coming home senior strategy group to oversee the implementation of the coming home implementation report. It delivered the dynamic support register, which was launched in May 2023 and which improves the visibility of people with learning disabilities and complex care needs at local and national levels. It also provides a tool to support local planning decision making. The most recent quarterly dynamic support register data, which took us up to September 2025, shows that fewer people were delayed in hospital or in inappropriate placings out of area compared with last year. The register has had an impact.

There is also a peer support network that brings together learning disability professionals from across Scotland to share best practice and to get support with planning services for individuals with particularly complex needs. There is also initial thinking on a national support panel to improve support and accountability and to hear from families and individuals about their individual circumstances.

The consultation on the learning disabilities, autism and neurodivergence bill set out the three options around the scope and remit of the panel, and further work has taken place to develop those options. I can provide further information on that.

I would be grateful for a reminder of the second part of your question.

::I picked up most of that question. Was your first question regarding people with learning disabilities?

I assure you that we keep in mind the aim of securing benefits for communities in everything that we do. Sometimes, that means that we have to decide to realign things so that they fit together better and run more smoothly. I am constantly trying to embed communication, integration and mainstreaming.

As Rob Priestley has said, the restructuring was an internal civil service process. Departments were realigned to ensure that my expectations are realised to the best effect and with the greatest efficiency. As always, that process will be evaluated to ensure that it is having the impact that we want it to have. The ultimate aim is to benefit communities.

I would just like to clarify this. Ms White, are you referring to historical—

No, we are not. We increased the funding for the delivery of our equally safe strategy by £2.4 million, which will bring it up to a total of £21.6 million, subject to the approval of the budget. We recognise the increased need in that area. I confirm that that is part of our commitment to the fairer funding approach. I heard loudly and clearly that people want multiyear funding in order to stabilise their services and their workforce, and all the rest of it.

It is frustrating when we announce uplifts and they are taken away. The uplifts have not had the effect that we would like, because we had an increase in employer national insurance contributions, for example, which is the ultimate frustration.

We currently support 115 projects from 107 organisations that cover every local authority in Scotland.

I just want to highlight a wee example that might help. The child poverty tagging pilot study found that high-impact lines span multiple portfolios, as has been said, and cluster around a small number of primary child poverty drivers, including social security, household income support, income from employment and parental employability, and early learning and childcare. That gives an indication of how you can start to track things across portfolios.

Something else that we should remember about budget tagging is that, although we absolutely want to follow the money, we need to ensure that we prioritise the areas where we can have the biggest impact. I mentioned child poverty, because tackling that is one of the Government’s key drivers, and we need to ensure that we consider the tagging and the evidence in that respect quite deeply and scrutinise it rigorously so that we can have a better outcome and can evidence that outcome in a better way. My concern is that we are asked to budget tag everything, because I think that the effect would be diluted.

I totally understand that frustration. That is why I think that it has been a massive step to have Cabinet takeovers, with the people who are responsible for every portfolio in a room at the same time, given the example of the crossover that you gave about bus services and employability services. As I have said to the committee previously, and as the cabinet secretary has mentioned, part of my equalities role involves ensuring that people come out of their silos and get the best information possible, so that they know the impact of one budget line on another.