Seòmar agus comataidhean

I am conscious of the time, and I believe that Marie McNair would like to come in.

Graham O’Neill, what more could the UK Government do to ease the pressure on local authorities and third sector organisations?

I have several questions on the theme of what further support from the Scottish and UK Governments might be useful. How should the UK Government be addressing the backlog in asylum claims? I ask Phil Arnold to answer that in as quick and concise a way as possible.

I turn to more of a local issue, and I wonder whether you have an awareness of this happening across Scotland, particularly regarding Ukrainian refugees who are being housed in hotels. In my local area, they have been given notice to quit the hotel, and they are hugely concerned. They have been there for quite some time and they have already been working or attending college, for instance. Their families are there, their children are at school, and they are now registering as homeless, basically. They are concerned about the upheaval of it all. Is that upheaval and change something that you recognise across Scotland and the UK?

Would you like to respond, Phil?

We will now move on to questions. They will be directed to you, cabinet secretary, but you are, of course, welcome to invite any official to respond, should you wish to do so.

That concludes our questions.

Before I move on to agenda item 2, I want to pick up on the point that John Mason made about the allocation of questions. The committee agreed that the pre-brief, which starts at 8.45, is when we allocate questions or decide who will ask questions to the panel that is coming on the day. Unfortunately, Katy Clark came in late today, and I assumed that she was asking a supplementary question on the back of Paul O’Kane’s question. I apologise to Jeremy Balfour that his question had already been asked. I just wanted to make that clear to everybody in the committee.

Agenda item 2 is formal consideration of motion S6M-12001. I invite the cabinet secretary to move the motion.

Motion moved,

That the Social Justice and Social Security Committee recommends that the Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 [draft] be approved.—[Shirley-Anne Somerville]

Motion agreed to.

The committee will report on the outcome of the two instruments in due course. I invite the committee to delegate authority to me, as convener, to approve drafts of the reports for publication. Do members agree?

Members indicated agreement.

I thank the cabinet secretary and her officials.

Our final agenda item today is consideration of a Scottish statutory instrument that is subject to the negative procedure. The purpose of the instrument is to uprate premiums and allowances that are used in the council tax reduction scheme when the level of council tax reduction that a household should receive is calculated. Do members have any comments on the instrument?

A very good morning, and welcome to the fifth meeting in 2024 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. We have received no apologies today.

Our first item of business is consideration of two Scottish statutory instruments. The draft instruments have been laid under the affirmative procedure, which means that the Parliament must approve them before they come into force.

I welcome to the meeting Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, and her officials from the Scottish Government: Kyle Murray is a policy adviser, Dominic Mellan is an economic adviser, and Katie Joshi is a lawyer. Thank you very much for joining us today.

Following this evidence session, the committee will be invited to consider motions to approve the two draft instruments. I remind everyone that Scottish Government officials can speak under this item but not during the debate that follows.

I invite the cabinet secretary to make a short opening statement.