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No, I cannot earnestly say that it has changed drastically. There is a degree of rough and tumble with politics, and we all bring our own perspectives. We have all been elected as party politicians, and that will inevitably come into play, in committee or otherwise. By and large, however, I do not think that things have changed too drastically.

I must also be candid in saying that, because I am in the Government, I do not sit on a committee, so I do not know about the dark secrets that the convener talked about—and I will keep mine to myself. I do not know precisely how committees operate when they meet in private session, and nor should I. The Government should not know that.

Looking from the outside in, it does not look as though things have changed drastically. However, of course, I have not sat on a committee since 2014.

If you are asking me whether the Government has any concern about that, the answer is no. If you are asking me whether the Government has a perspective on whether that should change or not, then I would say that the Government does not have a perspective on that.

This may be a matter of frustration, but I will probably say this a number of times: we need to be careful, as I cannot sit here as a Government minister and say what the best way for Parliament to operate would be. Parliament needs to make that decision.

There are different things. The most obvious and probably most substantial single event that might drive it is the First Minister—any First Minister—determining that there should be a Government reshuffle. Some people leave Government and some people come into it, and that would clearly drive churn.

There are other good reasons, too. Sometimes people are ill and have to take a leave of absence from Parliament. There can be bereavement or other reasons why someone might not be able to attend Parliament for a while. The Parliament has adapted its processes—for example, with proxy voting and remote voting—to accommodate that so that those situations do not impact parliamentary proceedings.

Given that committees consider matters in depth, there is only so much that I can do to assist those proceedings. If members are not able to attend Parliament for a while, inevitably that will lead to committee membership changes. That has certainly been the case during this parliamentary session.

Again, probably frustratingly, the Government does not have a direct perspective on that. Looking at it objectively, most people would instinctively say that it should be avoided as much as possible, because we would want people to build up a certain level of expertise and understanding of the subject matter. That has to be balanced, because members will also want to broaden their experience and understand different facets of parliamentary proceedings and Government activity, which is another driver of churn. Some members may want to move to a different committee because they want to benefit from broader exposure.

Broadly, most people would say instinctively that we should try to minimise churn, but there is some inevitability that it will happen during a parliamentary session. That is not new; it has been the case throughout my time in the Parliament. Before I was a minister, I was on numerous committees.

I would not necessarily say that. I have conceded that a reshuffle, which would be a one-off event, would create turnover or churn—whatever we might call it. I am not as convinced that Government activity in and of itself is the driver of that churn. I would be interested in the evidence that suggests that the business or the activity of the Government is the driver of the issue.

No, it does not. That would be a matter for the Parliament. I have heard that there is a perception that the Government is making great requirements of committees because of its legislative programme, which makes it hard for committees to handle their workload. A document that I have in front of me notes the average number of Government bills that were introduced per year per session. In session 1, it was 13; in session 2, it was 13; in session 3, it was 11; in session 4, it was 13; in session 5, it was 12; and in session 6, it is 12. The evidence suggests that we are not burdening committees with lots of activity in a way that we did not before.

I know that the average time that it takes to pass a Government bill is much longer now than it was before. This is based on only an initial look at the data, and there might need to be some sense check of the figures, but in session 1 it took 145 days calendar days—not sitting days—to pass a bill, whereas in this session it has taken 290 days. The time taken for stage 2 and stage 3 proceedings has been broadly stable across the parliamentary sessions, but stage 1 proceedings have taken much longer during this session. Stage 1 proceedings are not in the hands of the Government, as they are a matter for committees. I do not know whether that is something that the committee is considering.

It is regrettable that it has happened today, when I am here. [Laughter.] However, maybe it is for the better that I am here, because I am seeing the scrutiny in action.

I go back to the point that I made before: we have a process in place that, broadly speaking, works, which is demonstrated by the fact that the numbers are not high overall. As I said, earlier, we will not get it right all the time, but the aspiration is to do so.

It is a shared responsibility: everyone involved in the process of laying an instrument, from drafting through to laying it before the Parliament—all the officials involved, those involved in legal checks, and ministers—have a share of the responsibility, and no part of that system should abrogate its responsibility. We ensure that Government lawyers have on-going support, training and guidance to consider proposals, legal issues and drafting. There is a monthly session for lawyers to share knowledge about SSIs. That happens over the process and provides opportunities for peer support and learning. Further, once a specific SSI is drafted, it is checked within the team that drafted the instrument. However, the team is not just marking its own homework—another lawyer who was not involved in the drafting has to check it, too.

That speaks to me of a system that, broadly speaking, works, but I am always up for considering what else can be done. It is incumbent on us to consider that but, if there are specific things that this committee or any other committee of Parliament, as a result of its experience of considering any instrument, thinks could improve the process further, we are completely open to hearing what that might be.

Yes, I can tell you that. First of all, it is good to see you, too—I am delighted to be here.

We expect to lay 57 SSIs between now and the summer recess. There will be 19 affirmative instruments, 27 negative, nine laid with no procedure and two affirmative orders in council, which require approval at a meeting of the Privy Council with the King present as well.

On the committee volumes, there will be 11 for the Finance and Public Administration Committee, nine of which will fall in this month. The Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee will have nine; the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee and the Social Justice and Social Security Committee will have seven each; and the Education, Children and Young People Committee will have six. I think that there is nothing unexpected there—those are the committees that ordinarily have to deal with the most instruments. All the other committees will have fewer than five, at present—I should, of course, say that these things are always subject to change.

Of specific interest to this committee, there will be one for this committee, which will probably be towards the summer recess.

We will certainly endeavour to do so. There will be some instruments that might be longer than others.

This may be an issue that one of the committee members was going to follow up with me, but I am aware that there was a particular issue with one instrument. That goes back to the point about an instrument being withdrawn and relaid. A particularly lengthy set of regulations went to the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, and the committee had concerns about the time that was available to it to consider that instrument.

Following that experience and after discussion with officials, at my request, my officials have reviewed and updated the guidance for SSIs to emphasise the absolute need for the people with policy responsibility for any SSI to engage with the relevant subject committee as early as possible if there are to be regulations of significance. Clearly, we want to ensure that the relevant committee can build that into its programme and understand that it will have to set aside time for that.

We have also implemented an initial level of triage for bids for SSIs that are lengthy or complex. That is an internal process, through which we can ensure that the instrument is in the right place and that it absolutely needs to be one lengthy instrument. There might be another means of handling the issue, such as breaking it down into more than one instrument. That would not necessarily reduce workload for the committee overall, but it might make the process more manageable. That will enable my officials, who have overall responsibility for ensuring that the programme of legislation moves forward—but not direct policy responsibility—to re-emphasise the need for such engagement with the relevant committee. That is a practical example of having learned from experience to make sure that we refine and improve our processes going forward.