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Thank you. I could go on, but I will leave it there and let my colleagues come in.

You said that you find the notion of new Scots to be a positive idea.

Finally, I have a quick question—or, perhaps, more of a point to flag up.

We have heard when speaking directly to asylum seekers over the past couple of weeks that when their status changes—when they get a decision and become refugees—it is almost as though they are dropped. Some support networks exist within the hotel structures, or people build up relationships with organisations, but when they get settled status or refugee status, they cannot access those any more because they are no longer asylum seekers. That is something for us to watch so that, in the transition from asylum-seeker status to refugee status, people do not fall through the cracks and, therefore, end up even more in need of crisis funding.

I agree with you on that. Do you think that the new Scots strategy goes far enough? Notwithstanding resourcing, are there other areas in the new Scots strategy that we should be considering?

That is really helpful—you give a powerful example.

A moment ago, you spoke about your position on some of the profiteering around the privatisation of services. To be clear, when you talk about the services that you think would be better provided by local health and social care, and other service providers, are you saying that the funding for that should come from the UK Government?

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.

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.