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It is demand led, yes.

Coming from your own—

Welcome, minister and officials. I will move on to theme 2. The uprating is just an approximate measure where a single reference month is used. Can you say a bit more on the advantages and disadvantages of that? I know that the Scottish Government is keeping the policy under review. What consideration has been given to the future when you talk about the volatility of inflation in the past year? Can you comment on that? I will then ask another question related to that.

You touched on my next question in your answer to Pam Duncan-Glancy’s question about inflation and low-income households, in relation to the proportion of income that low-income households spend on energy and food costs, which has been exceptionally high this year and is proving to be an issue. Inflation has been forecast to come down this year, but food inflation and energy costs are still high. You mentioned that analysis of that is not in process yet. What are the plans for next year and the year after that on that specific work on low-income households and how they are impacted? That probably needs work to be done in conjunction with the UK Government, but what are your thoughts about that?

You touched on my next question when you talked about the impact of inflation. We looked back at inflation forecasts over the past year and they were nowhere near where inflation has ended up. There are two parts to my question. First, does the underlying adequacy of benefit payments need to be reviewed and will SCOSS have a role in that review?

Secondly—my colleagues know that this is one of my favourite questions—social security is a demand-led service and if the Scottish Government needs to find more money for uprating, as it has had to do this year, where will it find the money? It will have to take it from elsewhere. Should the Scottish and UK Governments discuss additional borrowing powers to deal with such issues? I come back to the point that we did not forecast that inflation would be anywhere near where it is this year.

Good morning, Marilyn. The first question is about the adequacy of social security payments. We all know about the impact of the cost of living crisis. Is that affecting the realisation of social security principles?

Would Gillian McNaught or Gary Somers like to add to that from a council point of view? Do you have any thoughts on that? Have you seen many applications? That is maybe slightly outwith your bailiwick, but you might have picked things up from other council colleagues.

I have received similar feedback. Does Gillian McNaught want to add anything else to that?

You spoke earlier about a conflation between control areas and licensing. You touched on that in response to the first question. I have seen evidence suggesting that planning and licensing issues are being conflated. Do you wish to say any more on that?

Julia Amour highlighted concerns about the system that governs temporary exemptions. We have heard about the impact that that would have on the festival, and we have seen your evidence. Can you say more about how that could be overcome? I have a related question about home sharing, which takes place during the festival. Can you comment on both those things?