Hansard

The Convener (Margaret McCulloch) Lab

I welcome everybody to the 20th meeting in 2015 of the Equal Opportunities Committee. I ask everyone to put any electronic devices into flight mode or switch...

Sandra White (Glasgow Kelvin) (SNP) SNP

Good morning, everyone. I am the MSP for Glasgow Kelvin and deputy convener of the committee.

Christian Allard (North East Scotland) (SNP) SNP

Good morning. I am an MSP for North East Scotland.

Annabel Goldie (West Scotland) (Con) Con

Good morning, I am an MSP for West Scotland.

John Finnie (Highlands and Islands) (Ind) Ind

Madainn mhath. Good morning. I am an MSP for the Highlands and Islands.

John Mason (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP) SNP

I am the MSP for Glasgow Shettleston.

Kathleen McInulty (Scottish Housing Regulator)

I am assistant director at the Scottish Housing Regulator.

Christine MacLeod (Scottish Housing Regulator)

I am director of regulation at the Scottish Housing Regulator.

John Jenkins (Scottish Housing Regulator)

Good morning. I am regulation manager at the Scottish Housing Regulator.

The Convener Lab

Thank you for coming along this morning to give us some information about your report. We will start with some questions from John Mason. Interruption. Sorry...

Christine MacLeod

Would that be possible?

The Convener Lab

Yes—no problem.

Christine MacLeod

Thank you, convener, for the invitation to give evidence to the committee about our thematic inquiry into Gypsy Travellers in Scotland. Our sole objective as...

The Convener Lab

Thank you—that was really interesting. We look forward to hearing your answers to our questions; John Mason will begin.

John Mason SNP

That was a very interesting update, and I appreciated the report, which is encouraging. I think that you said that it is the first time that the Scottish Hou...

Christine MacLeod

The predecessor bodies had a remit in relation to Gypsy Travellers and undertook what were called thematic inspections that were based on the standards and t...

John Mason SNP

You said that you had engaged, and you gave us a bit of information about that. I would be interested in hearing a bit more about that. Did you try to get Gy...

Christine MacLeod

My colleague Kathleen McInulty will answer that question.

Kathleen McInulty

Our engagement with Gypsy Travellers in the inquiry was primarily through our national panel of tenants and service users, which we established in 2013 as an...

John Mason SNP

Can you explain what you mean by the term “panel”? When I think of a panel, I think of five people sitting at a table, but it is obviously not that. Is it a ...

Kathleen McInulty

Yes. The national panel is run independently by Craigforth, a social research organisation. In total, it has 430 members, some of whom are Gypsy Travellers. ...

John Mason SNP

Okay, but it was specifically the Gypsy Traveller folk who were commenting for the inquiry.

Kathleen McInulty

That is correct.

John Mason SNP

Does the charter that you referred to apply across the board? I seem to be picking up that maybe some of the housing associations had not realised that it ap...

Christine MacLeod

It does. The charter’s purpose is to improve the quality of services that social landlords provide by setting out standards and outcomes that social landlord...

John Mason SNP

That seems quite clear. What would happen if a landlord had been a good landlord for the majority of their tenants but had forgotten about the Gypsy Travelle...

Christine MacLeod

Yes. When we looked at landlords in the thematic inquiry, we were looking specifically—

John Mason SNP

I was thinking more of your annual assessments.

Christine MacLeod

The information that we collect every year—social landlords’ annual returns—relates very specifically to the charter. They are annual returns on the charter....

John Mason SNP

My fear is that a landlord could appear to be doing quite well if they were doing quite well for 95 per cent of their tenants. The fact that they were not do...