Minutes of Meeting on Wednesday 28th August 2025
Venue: Online via teams
Time: 16:00-17:30
Type: Panel Meeting
ATTENDEES:
Panel: Matthew Cole, Kirsten Jenkins, Alister Steele and Fraser Stewart
Secretariat: Philippa Brosnan, Roanna Sefton, Trisha Melvin
Agenda item 1: Introductory Remarks
Matt welcomed everyone to the meeting and noted the importance of finishing on time. Matt made minor adjustments to the agenda to facilitate a more efficient flow of discussion. Matt also advised the Panel that Douglas Armstrong – the Scottish Government’s Fuel Poverty Team Leader – will be moving to a new position.
Agenda item 2: Panel Dates and availability
Trisha took the panel through the upcoming Panel Meeting overview and availability. The Panel discussed what they thought would work and agreed on dates and times. Trisha will follow this up with calendar holds in everyone’s diary.
Agenda item 3: Intern
Roanna updated that an intern has been matched with the Panel and the Panel agreed they are happy to proceed.(Subsequent to the meeting Matt agreed with the Secretariat that there would be a benefit of having two research interns, should the opportunity arise).
Agenda item 4: Periodic Report Response
Matt reflected that the Panel is very close tofinal version and thanked everyone for their work. Matt said its really important that the questions that Philippa circulated in the papers for discussion at this meeting, are addressed at today’s meeting. Matt advised that he and the Secretariat would go through the document on Monday 1st September and that any final comments should be sent to Philippa by Monday morning at the latest. The Panel reviewed the document and requested amendments where applicable. Philippa will produce a final version for the walk-through of the document on Monday 1st September.
Matt explained that he is keen to ensure ‘no surprises’ from the PRR and as such advocates for the Policy/Sponsor team to be provided with a draft of the PRR prior tp publication. Matt also explained the rationale for seaking meetings with the Cabinet Secretaries and with Matt Elsby, Deputy Director – Better Homes, too prior to publication.
Agenda item 5: Panel reflection
Matt invited reflections and then closed the meeting.
Next meeting – 11th of September the Panel are meeting Mairi McAllan MSP the Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Gillian Martin the Cabinet Scretary for Climate Action and Energy in Scottish Parliament. It was agreed that Panel members would meet prior to this meeting to agree priority points to be made.
19th of November : the Panel plan to meet for a full day at AQ5, Glasgow where the focus will be on taking stock of current delivery against the 2025-26 workplan, and to identify potential candidate areas and priorities for the 2026-27 plan. Matt noted that Maggie has regretfully now stepped down from the Panel and the plan now is that one new and one replacement Panel Member will be recruited.He noted that his expection had been that Panel member recruitment would likely be concluded by this point, however this is now unlikely.