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I know that concerns have been expressed about whether asylum seekers and refugees in Scotland would meet the requirement to be ordinarily resident and therefore eligible to apply for a GRC. I am sympathetic to those concerns. As you know, asylum and immigration are reserved to the UK Parliament and handled by the Home Office. Whereas we have responsibility for things such as access to essential services that enable integration, such as healthcare and education, this area rubs up against devolved versus reserved matters.

Obviously, refugees are in a bit of a different situation compared with asylum seekers in terms of their rights. There would be potential competence issues with the bill legislating for asylum seekers specifically to have access to gender recognition, as well as practical issues that would need further consideration. Peter Hope-Jones might have something to say about that further consideration.

The fact that so few people in the trans community—only 6,000 people, compared to the estimated number of up to 500,000 people in the UK who are trans—have obtained the gender recognition certificate confirms the evidence that we have heard about the process, which is that it is really off-putting to people. A process of statutory self-declaration will enable people to gain legal recognition of the way they have been living their lives for many years. Many trans people will have already changed other documentation.

I suspect that the spike that Ireland saw when it changed the process to one of statutory self-declaration probably represents people who had been living in their acquired gender for many years who took the step of gaining legal recognition. The numbers settled down after that spike.

One of the most powerful pieces of evidence that I heard was from an older person who said that the most important thing to come out of it all was that they would be able to have their death certificate record the gender that they had lived their entire life in. For the tiny number of people whom the change will affect, it could be really important. That evidence highlights that it is a very important and very personal thing. Hearing about the importance of having end-of-life recognition of the gender that a person has lived their life in was very powerful.

The registrar general will have an important role, not least in making sure that the guidance is clear and supportive and explains things in clear language. Work on that guidance will obviously involve a number of organisations. For example, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland gave evidence that the language used in the guidance needs to be clear for 16 and 17-year-olds. There would potentially also be signposting to other organisations that are beyond the registrar general’s ambit for providing guidance.

Peter Hope-Jones might want to add something about making any changes to the regulations.

That would be a matter for us around the mechanics of the legislation once the bill has finished its passage through Parliament, rather than being part of the bill as such. There is nothing odd about that; it is just the normal course of events. It is a technical issue with which we do not envisage there being any issues.

No. Whether the UK Government changes its processes is clearly a matter for the UK Government itself, as is whether it recognises Scottish gender recognition certificates. That does not affect our ability to make changes to the law here.

No, I do not agree with that. The bill has been the subject of a lot of consultation: there have been two Scottish consultations and one UK consultation, all of which received high numbers of responses. In those consultations, there was generally more support than opposition, although I take the point about the responses to the committee.

In addition to that, there have been various polls, such as the BBC poll that found that 60 per cent of the public support reform, with young people and women more likely to support it. More recently, a report from More in Common found that people are perhaps less divided on trans issues than social media would indicate. With more than 30,000 responses in total, the two formal consultations are among the largest that the Scottish Government has ever undertaken. Work has been going on over a number of years to get us to that point.

I have met representatives from organisations that are for and against the bill. During those wide-ranging conversations, suggestions for changes were made from both sides of the debate, and I have considered all of those. Before that, my predecessor, Shirley-Anne Somerville, also met a range of organisations. The subject has been debated, scrutinised and consulted on, and now this committee is looking at the detail. I do not think that it would be appropriate to pause now. It is time for this committee to do its work and for Parliament to make a judgment about the detail of the bill and whether it supports it.

We have been a long time getting to this point and any further delay will not necessarily enhance the public discourse around the issues. It has come to the point where, as legislators and parliamentarians, we need to make a decision about the matter. Given all the delays that we have already had, I think that any further delay would not be helpful.

People who are deeply affected by this—I reiterate that it is a tiny number of people for whom it is really important—would have a further delay in being able to bring their legal status and documentation into line with how they live their lives. I do not think that that would be the right thing to do.

As I said, the connecting Scotland programme is looking at identifying priority groups to support during the next four years, and it is likely to focus on the six child poverty family types. That chimes with the child poverty delivery plan. The research undertaken by the connecting Scotland programme is on what will help the most, whether it is about devices and being able to use them or whether it is about connectivity issues. That research will be important in ensuring that the next phase of work through connecting Scotland helps those who need it most. I am happy to ensure that the connecting Scotland team keeps the committee appraised of that work.

I do not know whether that has been done. We can follow up on that and check whether that discussion has taken place in respect of debt advice.

Perhaps we could pick the matter up with COSLA and discuss whether there are ways that we could work together to promote information. I know that that is a bit different from writing to individuals, but there might be complexities around doing that that would generate numerous letters weekly. That might be difficult for people, rather than helpful. However, I take the point about making sure that we provide clear information to people in case they are slipping through the net. As Robin Haynes said, it is not in any local authority’s interest not to ensure that people are aware of the council tax reduction scheme.

If there is more that we can do to promote information and clarity, I am happy to pick that up and discuss it with COSLA.