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I want to go back to Hannah Brisbane to ask about stigma, which we know prevents a lot of people from coming forward to seek help. Do you find that that is worse when children are involved? Are people anxious about what an admission of being in difficulties will mean for, say, custody of children or that it might lead to their children facing stigma?

Thank you all for those answers. I have a follow-up question on disabled people. The things that are getting more expensive include energy bills, which we know will impact disabled people more. Sarah-Jayne Dunn commented that we are now in the warmer months. That will not be as helpful to people in certain island and coastal communities. Are you finding that, in addition to other characteristics, there is a disparity when it comes to location?

Good morning. It is good to see you again, Bill. I want to pick up on a comment that you made about the importance of affordable travel. That is obviously a big barrier for many people in the Highlands and Islands. The plan discusses the complexity of rural poverty. I am particularly encouraged by the work that has been done on housing and the fact that evidence has been taken from the Anchor project in Shetland. Are there other aspects of rural poverty that you think need more attention?

As always, I am struggling with the contradictions in our hybrid social security system. The Scottish Government wants to give money to parents to tackle child poverty, and it wants to help those same parents into work. The Government relies on universal credit, which is a reserved income-based benefit, to provide the data to determine who receives the Scottish child payment. Is it possible to do both those things when, under universal credit, a person who is in work might lose their benefits? In essence, can the policies to tackle child poverty be as effective as possible while they are being delivered under a hybrid social security model that is led by two Governments that have fundamentally different ideologies?

That is probably for Philip Whyte and Jack Evans.

Good morning, minister. In the evidence session with kinship carers last week, their wish to have a more consistent approach towards how kinship care is defined came through very strongly. Some had one child in one category and one child in another. They told us that they wanted one clear definition: that children in their care were looked after and could therefore receive the same support as other care-experienced children.

Will the Scottish Government consider a clearer and more consistent approach to the definition of those in kinship care, whether through legislation or otherwise?

Good morning, minister. You touched on the need for increases to disability and carers benefits to be linked to the UK rate. Do you believe that the UK Government should be uprating those benefits, which would, in turn, allow the Scottish Government to do the same?

Minister, it is possible that, after the case transfer, people who are currently on DLA might not end up staying on ADP. Do you think that that situation will be uncommon? Where it happens, will the data be monitored so that we can get a full picture of why it has happened and consider whether any changes to support or criteria should be made in the future?

Yes, that was helpful—thank you.

My first question is about child poverty. We expect that, by reducing child poverty, we will create budget savings in other areas, but it is hard to solidly link underspends or reductions in spend elsewhere to a reduction in child poverty. Can you suggest ways in which we can monitor those effects as effectively as possible? How can we evidence knock-on effects and evaluate success on that level?

My other question is about the fiscal framework review. It is fair to say that a hybrid social security model comes with a lot of challenges. We hear a lot about the limitations on future planning because of the threat of changes to the block grant, the extra costs of diverging from UK policy and so on. Does having a hybrid reserved and devolved social security system make financial sense? Can we ever protect the social security budget from risks effectively while we are so intrinsically tied to UK policy decisions?

On the topic of budget scrutiny, is it more important for those of us who are tasked with scrutinising social security to make use of the medium-term financial strategy than it is for other committees?

I direct that question to Emma Congreve.