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The Audit Scotland recommendations also highlighted the issue of technical debt. Can you give a clearer idea of the scale and nature of that issue at the moment? How are you addressing it?

I very much welcome your comments, Bob, which will be on the record.

Are members content to note the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.

I invite Katy Clark, who is joining us online, to ask questions.

Our next item is an evidence session on the budget for 2024-25. The committee’s pre-budget report was published in November and the Scottish Government provided its response on 19 December, on which date the budget was also published.

Today we will undertake scrutiny of the budget with Shirley-Anne Somerville, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice. I welcome her and hope that she is feeling much better. I also welcome the officials accompanying her: Stephen Kerr, director, social security; Shirley Laing, director, tackling child poverty and social justice; and Sean Neill, director for local government and communities. They are all from the Scottish Government and I thank them for joining us today.

Before we turn to questions, I invite the cabinet secretary to make a short opening statement.

Thank you very much, cabinet secretary. I will now invite members to ask questions. Initially, though, I am intrigued to hear a bit more from you on the cash first fund that you announced. Can you elaborate on that?

To what extent has the £1 billion additional spend on social security benefits been funded through higher than expected income tax revenue?

Following the theme of child poverty and the cost of living, Marie McNair would like to ask a supplementary question.

Before that, I invite Paul O’Kane to come in with a supplementary.

As I have said, I am conscious of the time, but Bob Doris wishes to come in with another supplementary before we move on to housing and homelessness. We have until around 11:15, so I remind everyone to be clear and succinct in their questions and answers.

Could you make your questions more direct? Thanks, Bob.