Official Report 190KB pdf
I welcome members to the meeting. Before I ask our witnesses to introduce themselves and so on, we must conduct a wee bit of bureaucratic business—there is a standard procedure for going through the committee's agenda.
I want to ask a couple of quickies. Has there been any feedback from Scottish Homes on the comparative cost analysis of private funding? Have we had a reply from the Minister for Communities on the mapping exercise?
The letter is only a couple of days out. Martin Verity drafted it and I sent it, so the answer is probably no.
We have received some information from Scottish Homes, but we have not received all the information that the committee seems to expect. We will look into the matter and pursue it with Scottish Homes.
I understand that the housing reporter is continuing the work and that the meetings are being scheduled.
I have spoken to Fiona Hyslop about it.
Fine. We have agreed a meeting of the anti-poverty strategy group—at last. Getting the five people together has been the most difficult aspect of that, but we will meet next week and report to the committee. Is there anything else?
Is it possible to timetable, at some point in the near future, an opportunity for the full committee to formalise the role and remit of the reporter on the voluntary sector, so that, after I have spoken to the relevant people, the group can get down to work?
Martin Verity will consider our scheduling of meetings—the people whom we have invited and the time that we are committing—to establish when that can be appropriately squeezed on to the agenda. It might be when we are taking evidence from one outside agency rather than two. Martin and I will consider that.