Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning and welcome to the 17th meeting in 2022 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. Our first item of business is to decide whether to take items 4, 5 and 6 in private. Do we agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

We turn to our next item of business, which is an evidence session for our inquiry into low income and debt. We are taking evidence from Richard Dennis, the Accountant in Bankruptcy. Welcome to the committee and thank you for joining us.

Before I begin, I remind everyone that broadcasting will operate your microphones. We have about an hour for this session, before we hear from the Scottish Commission on Social Security at around 10.30 am. Richard Dennis will make an opening statement.

Many thanks for that, Mark. As we have only a short amount of time left for this session—Mark has to leave for another meeting—I request that members ask all their questions in one when I come to them in turn. We will start with Paul McLennan, please.

Sally Witcher wants to come in.

We will now ask questions on the theme of balancing the interests of creditors and those of people with debt problems. The deputy convener, Natalie Don, will kick us off.

Richard, we seem to have lost connection with you.

Many thanks for those opening remarks. I will hand over to members for questions and Paul McLennan will kick us off.

Welcome back. We now have a short evidence session with the Scottish Commission on Social Security about its report on the draft Disability Assistance for Working Age People (Transitional Provisions and Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2022—is that not a mouthful—which were laid in Parliament on 6 May. The regulations deal with the transfer from disability living allowance to adult disability payment for adults of working age and those who have reached pension age since April 2013.

The committee will invite the minister to give evidence on the regulations at a future meeting. This morning, I am pleased to welcome Dr Sally Witcher, who is the chair of SCOSS, and Dr Mark Simpson, who is a member of the commission. I hand over to Dr Witcher to make an opening statement.

We will move on to questions about the mechanics of bankruptcy. To kick us off, I will go to my colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy.

I think that we have managed to get you back, Richard, which is fantastic. Can you hear me okay?