Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning, minister. Thank you for being with us this morning. I am interested in exploring some of the possibilities for action that we have around use of hotels. We know that hotels have increasingly been used not as temporary or short-term accommodation, as was originally intended, but have become institutionalised accommodation across the piece. We see that not only in Glasgow, but in other parts of Scotland including Falkirk and Aberdeen.

What are the priorities in ensuring that we move people out of hotels as early as possible? We know that hotels are not the best places for people to be and that asylum seekers do not necessarily have the mental healthcare and other healthcare support that they should have. Hotel accommodation also ghettoises them, makes them targets and identifies them very clearly as a community of asylum seekers living in that one place. What are the Scottish Government’s priorities for ensuring that institutionalised use of hotel accommodation shifts?

We heard from Baroness Helena Kennedy this morning that one of the challenges is that local authorities and others are finding that they do not have the capacity to move people out of hotels, because other accommodation is not available. I appreciate that provision of housing is within the powers of the Scottish Government. Health and social care support is also clearly devolved and within our capabilities.

Is the Scottish Government thinking of working differently with local authorities and third sector partners to make sure that asylum seekers, while they are in what is pretty horrendous hotel accommodation, get the best possible healthcare, social care and other support in that—as the minister said—“temporary” situation?

One of the things that we heard very clearly from organisations supporting asylum seekers, the asylum seekers themselves and this morning’s first panel, was that there is a lack of funding for third-sector organisations. A lot of money is going to hotel providers and Mears, but no funding goes directly from the Home Office to third sector support organisations. That is completely back to front in my view. I could use other words to describe it, but I will not.

In the past couple of weeks, we have spoken to asylum seekers in various situations, and the joined-upness of services has been an issue for some folks. In addition to the public transport pilot in Aberdeen that you mentioned, one of the bus providers in Aberdeen did work with the Grampian Racial Equality Council and got bus service provision for asylum seekers who have been sent there. That kind of thing is so important, especially if people have to travel further afield. No one wants to sit in a hotel room for most of the day, only leaving to eat food that may or may not be culturally sensitive, or perhaps to get out for a walk to nearby facilities. There are consequences for people’s mental health in not having the additional services; they might not seem like matters of life or death, but they are fundamental to being human.

What more can the Scottish Government consider doing, either through the new Scots strategy or the ending destitution together strategy, to ensure that we look at the whole picture? We cannot look at services in silos and say, “You get your healthcare from your GP and you get your housing when that is worked out between the Home Office and the local authority.” We need to look at asylum seekers as whole human beings. I am interested to know what more we could be doing within the powers that we have.

On your staffing mix, you have previously talked about the contractors that you use and the specialised work that they do, and your corporate plan includes a planned reduction in reliance on contractors. Will you provide us with an update on how that is going?

That makes sense. It is good news to hear that people who come in as contractors see Registers of Scotland as a good place to work and an attractive proposition, and want to jump on board.

We have previously discussed the fact that cost is one of the reasons given in the corporate plan for wanting to shift the balance away from the use of contractors. Are you still aiming to make cost savings?

I suppose that there is also a benefit for staff morale and the integrity of the staff team in having people who are there for the long term. How is morale, given the successes that you have had in dealing with the backlog and the increase of 7 per cent that you mentioned in relation to the land register?

My last question is about your staff and contractor budgets. How are inflationary pressures affecting those budgets? Are there significant challenges there, beyond the general challenges of inflation?

Thank you.

That is very helpful and interesting. Following the discussion that we had earlier, it is clear that there is a key role for collaboration and partnership working and the connection with the expert advisory group and drawing in lived experience from that. For example, would Advice Direct Scotland come to you and say that it is seeing an increasing number of calls, queries, complaints or questions on a specific issue? Would that allow you to track into either the expert advisory group with lived experience or your wider policy research?

Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I want to explore the issue of vulnerable customers and consumers a bit further. Obviously, they are a statutory focus of your work, and you have clearly identified the issue as a cross-cutting theme. You have spoken a little about the challenges and issues. You said that you took a broad definition of a vulnerable consumer, and the definitions in the 2020 act refer to people who have

“fewer or less favourable options”

and are

“at ... greater risk of ... harm”.

How do you define vulnerability? How do you identify the vulnerable consumer?