Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning and welcome to the 18th meeting in 2022 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. Our first agenda item is a decision on whether to take items 6 and 7 in private. Do members agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

I will bring Miles Briggs back in, to be followed by Paul McLennan, who has a supplementary question. Paul will then start us off on our final theme, which is around the cost of living and the economic context.

We will move on to our last theme, which is about monitoring and evaluation.

Thank you for that opening statement. We move to questions from members. Deputy convener Natalie Don will kick us off. She will be followed by Foysol Choudhury, who joins us remotely.

We move on to questions on transitional protections from Pam Duncan-Glancy.

We have some questions on backdating. I will bring Emma Roddick in on that, followed by Jeremy Balfour and Miles Briggs.

If there are no further questions from members, we will move on to the formal debate on the motion. I remind committee members that only members and the minister may take part. I invite the minister to move motion S6M-04303.

Motion moved,

That the Social Justice and Social Security Committee recommends that the Disability Assistance for Working Age People (Transitional Provisions and Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2022 [draft] be approved.—[Ben Macpherson]

Motion agreed to.

Do colleagues agree that the clerks and I will produce a short factual report of the committee’s decisions and arrange to have it published?

Members indicated agreement.

Before we move on to our next set of questions, I would just observe that what you have just described suggests that this is very much an iterative process. The data will constantly change, not just because it is being given at different times by different sections of government; it will also change in light of what will come out of the pilots as well as the review that is going to take place. As such, it is very important that the committee has close links with the Fiscal Commission in scrutinising these matters. Your forecast shows just how drastically things have changed since December, once all these things have been taken on board, and I thank you for that.

Our next theme is the potential gap in funding. I call Paul McLennan, to be followed by Miles Briggs.

Our last question in this session is from Pam Duncan-Glancy.