Seòmar agus comataidhean

We move on to theme 4, which is increasing the Scottish child payment weekly amount.

Before you answer, I remind everyone that we are tight for time and it would be good to have responses that are as concise as possible.

I am sorry to interrupt but, before Paul O’Kane continues, Jeremy Balfour wants to come in with a quick supplementary question.

As we have no further questions, we move to formal consideration of motion S6M-13023.

Motion moved,

That the Social Justice and Social Security Committee recommends that the Carer’s Assistance (Carer Support Payment) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024 [draft] be approved.

Motion agreed to.

The next item is the second of two evidence sessions in the committee’s short inquiry into how effective the Scottish child payment is in reducing child poverty. Last week, we heard from academics from the University of York, Loughborough University and the University of Oxford and from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Today, we will hear from a panel of stakeholders.

I welcome Ruth Boyle, policy and campaigns manager at the Poverty Alliance; Jack Evans, senior policy adviser at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation; and Stephen Sinclair, chair of the Poverty and Inequality Commission. Erica Young, policy adviser at Citizens Advice Scotland, planned to be part of the panel but has sent her apologies as she is unable to attend.

I thank you all for accepting our invitation. I have a few points to mention about the format of the meeting before we start. I ask that you wait until I say your name before speaking. Please do not feel that you all have to answer every question. If you have nothing to add to what others have said, that is okay. I also remind members and the panel that we should try to keep questions and answers as concise as possible.

Without further ado, we move to the questions.

We are tight for time, so please be as quick and concise as possible.

Okay. That finishes our evidence session. I thank all of our witnesses. The committee will consider in private how it would like to proceed with the evidence that it has heard so far.

I suspend the meeting briefly for the setting up of our next agenda item.

Our next item of business is the first evidence session as part of the committee’s short inquiry into the effectiveness of the Scottish child payment in reducing child poverty.

We will hear today from academics from a number of universities and from a representative of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. I welcome Ruth Patrick, who is a professor of social policy, and Emma Tominey, who is a professor of economics, both from the University of York, and I thank them for attending. We are joined online by Danny Dorling, who is the Halford Mackinder professor of geography at the University of Oxford; Tom Wernham, who is a research economist at the Institute for Fiscal Studies; and Dr Juliet Stone, who is a research fellow at the centre for research in social policy at Loughborough University. I thank them all for accepting our invitation.

I will make a few points about the format of the meeting before we begin. Please wait until I, or the member who is asking a question, say your name before you speak, and do not feel that you have to answer every question. If you have nothing new to add to what has been said by others, that is okay. I ask witnesses who are joining us online to allow our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn on your microphone before you speak. You can put an R in the Zoom chat box to indicate that you wish to come in on a question. I ask everyone to keep their questions and answers as concise as possible.

We now move to questions. The first theme is on the impact that the Scottish child payment has had on poverty. I will direct my question to Danny Dorling in the first instance, but if anyone else wishes to come in, please do so. What do we know so far about the effectiveness of the Scottish child payment in lifting children out of poverty?

That is really interesting.

The next theme is monitoring and evaluation. I invite Paul O’Kane to come in.