We now come to item 5 on the agenda. The Housing (Scotland) Bill has already come before the committee, and we were sent the financial memorandum with the bill. We were not entirely happy with the level of information that was given to us. We had been happy with the information supplied to the committee in connection with the Education (Graduate Endowment and Student Support) (Scotland) (No 2) Bill, but were disappointed in this case.
I recently visited a fairly new housing association. Its representatives indicated that one impact of the bill would be a need for some sort of hike in housing association grant in due course. I have been over the memorandum and have not seen any indication that that might be forthcoming. I would like to ask the minister a couple of questions about that before we proceed.
Compared to the financial memorandum for the Education (Graduate Endowment and Student Support) (Scotland) (No 2) Bill, the financial memorandum for the Housing (Scotland) Bill does not take us forward to the same extent. Furthermore, I am not sure that there is much more information in it than there was before. There are five pages, but I cannot find much in the way of gems in those. I wonder whether an official from the relevant department, if not the Minister for Social Justice, might give us half an hour of their time at a future meeting. That would be the best way to proceed with this, given that many questions remain.
I am told that we could invite an official to our next meeting if members want to pursue that issue. That would allow us to ask for more information. Is that agreed?
Members should let the clerk know the specific areas that they would like to pursue with the officials, so that they will be adequately prepared and able to give full answers.
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