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Good morning and thank you for being here. This morning, we have heard about challenges and accusations of collusion and political interference in policing, and I hear clearly your refutations of that. We have also heard—and we know from some of the narrative around it—about the media being quite pliant. However, something that I am not sure has previously come out for many people is the disproportionate impact of the strikes on Scottish mining communities compared with those elsewhere. More Scottish miners were arrested and more of them lost their jobs than those elsewhere. I want to explore how some of that might have arisen.

When you were sent to police the picket lines, how were the miners described to you? What were you told about them? What orders did you receive? Were you told what the operational outcome of the policing procedure should be?

That is helpful. Thank you.

Tom, we have heard in evidence this morning that it appeared that certain individuals were targeted. I take on board what Jim McBrierty said about miners coming from elsewhere to join picket lines, which was often the flash point. Were you aware of any specific targeting of individuals? It seems as though active trade unionists were targeted more than others. Was there any operational decision or discussions around that focus of police activity?

Thank you for that answer. While you were speaking, I was wondering about connections. You said that the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland is really valuable. What are the interactions and relationships with not just further education but higher education? I am aware that quite a lot of university resource is going into innovation. Universities are bringing in partners from around the UK and, actually, around the world to focus on that. Are there structures or facilities that we could think about to ensure that we bring people together in an effective way?

Thank you. I ask Keith Ridgway the same questions about innovation, resilience and what we need to support the technologies that we are talking about.

That is helpful.

Good morning, witnesses. Thank you for being with us.

I have a couple of questions. Nick Shields was just talking about innovation and the need to change our technologies, and you have all touched on resilience issues around diversification and adaptation, such as being adaptable and flexible, as well as skills. Will you say a bit more about the level of innovation activities across your areas, particularly on developing processes and technologies that will help us to address supply chain issues? What is there at the moment? What do you think that we need? How do we incentivise innovations? I am particularly interested in innovations that lead directly to supply chain resilience and supporting industries that we can sustain through volatile circumstances and times. That question goes first to Nick Shields, then to Keith Ridgway then Iain Bomphray.

I want to pick up a couple of points that have been made about the coercion and control that some lone mums will experience. Pam Gosal, who sends her apologies today, was interested in exploring some of the high levels of domestic abuse and violence that we know have occurred during the pandemic, not only in black, Asian and minority ethnic communities and ethnic minority groups but more generally. What are the witnesses’ thoughts on current service provisions and whether our policies are adequate? Do we have the right support mechanisms in place to support people who are in abusive and violent situations, and what can we do better? I appreciate that, particularly for carers in paid and unpaid work, there will be additional vulnerabilities around domestic abuse and domestic violence, so I am keen to hear different people’s views on that. Those questions are for Satwat Rehman first and then for anybody else who wants to pick those up. I am sure that Margaret Lance will want to.

Thank you, Patrycja—that is a clear outline of some of the barriers and issues around digital replacements for face-to-face meeting spaces. We need to think a bit more creatively and imaginatively about that.

I turn to Margaret Lance. I am aware that ethnic minority women face additional exclusions around not only digital poverty but safe spaces to meet, and there may be cultural issues that we need to understand a bit more clearly. What would you like to say in response?

You have clearly outlined the gross failure of society to understand different family models, which we need to think about more widely, and not just in this committee. We also need to think about how to deal with issues of isolation and the on-going mental health impacts on individuals and society, which will affect us for a significant time to come, because I am not sure that we have systems in place to do that. I will leave it there just now, convener, and will come in again later if that is okay.

That was very helpful. Thank you, Margaret.

Does Satwat Rehman want to come in to say a little bit about the women, lone carers and lone families whom she supports, and how they have dealt with some of the intersections—the cross-cutting inequalities—that they face?