Seòmar agus comataidhean

Over to you, minister. I hope that you managed to get that.

Good morning and welcome to the 10th meeting in 2022 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. Our first item of business is to decide whether to take items 4 and 5 in private. Do members agree to that?

Members indicated agreement.

Agenda item 2 is the role of the Department for Work and Pensions in devolved social security. This morning we will hear from Chloe Smith MP, who is the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work. She will discuss how the Department for Work and Pensions is supporting the Scottish Government and its implementation of the social security provisions of the Scotland Act 2016. There is interdependence between the hybrid Scottish and United Kingdom systems in delivery, infrastructure and decision making. The committee is keen to develop its working relations across the nations at parliamentary and governmental levels.

I welcome Chloe Smith to the meeting. The minister is accompanied by Andrew Latto, who is the deputy director for pensioner benefits and carers allowance policy in the devolution team, and Margarita Morrison, who is the area director for work and pension services Scotland at the Department for Work and Pensions. I invite the minister to make a short opening statement before moving to questions from committee members.

Yes, we can, thank you.

We will move on to the last theme, which is on the fiscal framework.

Agenda item 3 is subordinate legislation. We will consider four negative Scottish statutory instruments. Members are invited to consider all four of the instruments together. Background information is outlined in papers 3 to 6.

Do members have any comments on the instruments? If so, it would be helpful if you highlight which instrument they relate to.

Your comments are on record and will be noted in the Official Report of the meeting.

Are members content to note the SSIs?

Members indicated agreement.

I will go back to my colleague, Emma Roddick, who unfortunately I cut off. I did not realise that she had another question, because she froze on the screen.

I completely understand that. We may need to follow that up in writing with you. Those of us in the room caught some of it and then it sped up at the end and we could not catch what Emma Roddick was saying, unfortunately. I will have to move on the next theme. We have questions from Natalie Don, who also joins us remotely.

Thank you for adding that. I guess that that leads on to Pam Duncan-Glancy’s question about passporting benefits.