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I turn to members for questions. We have grouped questions into themes of employability, education maintenance allowance, concessionary fares and transport costs, and cost of living consequentials and child poverty. Members, as ever, will also have their own questions, which I will bring them in on towards the end. To start, members should direct their questions to the Deputy First Minister, who will bring in his officials when he decides to.

Thank you, Deputy First Minister. That clarifies the point for us all.

Who is that for?

I thank the witnesses for joining us this morning to give evidence and for their written submissions. I should say that the committee undertook human rights training over the summer; the PANEL principles are therefore at the forefront of our minds, and we think that they represent a key way of undertaking our scrutiny work as best we can.

I suspend briefly for a changeover of witnesses. If everyone could be back in approximately five minutes, that would be helpful.

Do you have questions on spending powers, which is the next theme?

We turn to questions from Jeremy Balfour.

There are members with additional questions, so may I bring you back in on that?

Thank you.

Jeremy Balfour is going to start our questions on cost of living consequentials and child poverty.

Jeremy Balfour has a follow-up question.

I thank Gordon MacRae and Frank McKillop for coming along. If there is anything that they feel they need to follow up in writing with us, they should feel free to do so.