Essentially, the way that any group is established is that its members come forward together. It is not a top-down model at all; it is determined by a group of people coming together. We asked Rob Woodward, who is the former chief executive of STV, to head up our efforts at a national level on employer engagement and engagement with the groups. He reached out to people, particularly in areas where it was proving difficult to get groups established. I had that conversation with Mr Scott and I am very pleased to say we have a very good and active group in his constituency now.
Those people would come together and bring forward a proposition to the national group. If that was thought to be a good proposition that would take account of the forecast costs of their activity, it would come to me for sign-off. Again, it comes down to the group taking forward what it thinks it requires.
That said, of course, this is an experience of being informed by what happens on a practical basis. If a particular group finds that there is an impediment to a certain form of activity, we will consider it. For example, in Mr Scott’s constituency, I had a very useful meeting with one of the co-chairs—in Shetland, the group has three co-chairs, which shows how different each group can be. The co-chair I met raised the issue of the additional costs involved in chairs getting from an island community to participate in round-table meetings with other chairs. I have undertaken to take that away and consider it. If issues are raised, we will consider them.
Another point is that I would not expect—not that I want to be top down and instructive on these matters—the Dumfries and Galloway group’s efforts to be entirely located in Dumfries, despite its being in your constituency, Mr Mundell. Indeed, I know that the group is undertaking activity across the entirety of the local authority area.