 It's one of the government's flagship initiatives, a proposed law to require public authorities to take action when people wish to become involved in or come up with ways of improving their community. It is called the Community Empowerment Bill. I'm the convener of the Local Government and Regeneration Committee here in the Parliament and that's a great privilege and it's been a great honour to be able to scrutinise this bill. That's allowed us to go throughout the country to talk to people, to garner their thoughts and improve this piece of legislation. The committee has been hearing from literally thousands of individuals. It's met people in either formal or informal meetings in Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, Paisley, Cumbernauld, Aire, Mabel, Stornoway, Shetland, Livingston, Kelso, Dumfries and Fort William. We gathered ideas and got feedback through social media and provided regular updates with our own videos and through other channels. The public have been immense in terms of giving us their views in regards to this piece of draft legislation. That has been important to us in terms of formulating what we need to do and to improve the legislation that was initially put in front of us and the responses from the public that we have had have led us to accepting many, many amendments to the bill, which in my opinion greatly improves that bill. For people involved in this scheme, which for example can help people become small-scale tenant foresters, a change would be welcome. Well the biggest landowner in Scotland is the state and that's managed through the Forestry Commission. But as things stand at the moment, we weren't able to lease land from the state through the Forestry Commission. Examples of changes include, Elast for the opportunity to appeal should a request to participate be refused. This is now included. You wanted enhanced powers for urban communities and crofters, which have now been added. On allotments, you wanted minimum sizes, shorter time on waiting lists and fair rents, all of which have been added. In addition to ensure actions can be monitored, we have added requirements for detailed reporting to us on how public bodies have delivered what we have told them to do. It's looking like at the moment the outcomes from our engagement is that we've been successful really in what we were trying to do. The bill moves into stage three, the final stage in its revised form, including all our amendments, and goes before the full Scottish Parliament to vote on whether or not it should become law. Other amendments will probably be made at this debate and some provisions will no doubt be tidied up. If the bill is passed, it then goes before the Queen to sign, giving royal assent, officially making it an act or law. What I would say to the folks out there who have engaged with us is you have spoken, we have listened and we have acted and what you have put forward has improved the legislation dramatically and I hope that the folks who have become engaged during this process recognise that their voice does make a difference. Engaging with the committees of the Scottish Parliament is an effective way for you to help shape the law. You can learn more about the work of the parliamentary committees on our website. You can subscribe to local government and regeneration committees contact list email and you can follow the final progress of the community empowerment bill on our webpage and join the debate on social media.