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Thank you; that is helpful.

The Government has indicated that it will begin to review some of the eligibility criteria around the 20m rule this year. When would you expect to see some of the details on the costings for that? What timescale should we be looking at? I am conscious of David Phillips’s answer about when you would expect to see financial decisions as well as policy decisions. It would be good to know what you think about that.

Thank you—it does. If there is a review and the Government is serious about changing the policy, I would like to know that the money was available or where the Government was going to get it and how soon we should expect detail on that.

My other questions are for both of you. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy said that she wants to make “intelligent decisions” on social security. Will you set out how that could be done, whether the Government has the data to do it and what the timescales involved in intelligent decision making on social security should be? That is related to the point that we have just spoken about.

Thank you both for that. That is really helpful. How do the minister and the DWP plan to include the Scottish Government in the development of the reforms to the personal independence payment? How much consideration is being given to the effect on potential case law divergence?

The roll-out of the Scottish child payment to over-sixes has taken some time. What pressure, if any, has the Scottish Government put on the Department for Work and Pensions to move faster to do that? What assurances has the Scottish Government sought that the DWP strategic solution will be operational by the time of the roll-out?

That is helpful. At what point did the Scottish Government ask that particular question?

Does the minister believe that changing the eligibility criteria for the enhanced rate of the mobility component would impact on passported benefits?

Can I ask for some clarification? Sorry, minister—I probably was not as clear in my original question as I should have been. It was more about the green paper that proposes changes to disability benefits at the UK level, which might have an impact on people in Scotland. I was asking what engagement you have with the Scottish Government on that particular process.

On the SSI on council tax reduction, it would be helpful to know whether the Government has any plans to gather data on the numbers of people who access council tax reduction and who they are. Also, do we know how many people, if any, have missed out as a result of the error that is noted in the papers and will their payment be given back? Will that be backdated? I do not know whether the committee will wish to write to the Government about that. I intend to vote for the SSI, but it would be worth asking those questions.

Good morning, minister and officials. It is good to meet you. I want to start on disability benefit reform, but with a word of caution about the workplace statistics that you shared. Those statistics may hide some inequalities in the workforce and in the workplace, and they also may be people getting into work that is not secure in the long term or that does not guarantee more than a few hours—in some cases, zero hours. I ask that some of that data also be considered, so that we make sure that the whole economy and everyone in it is doing better, not just some of us.

On disability benefit reform, I am keen to ask about access to work and where that sits. Does the minister believe that some of the changes that were made during the pandemic around the electronic submission of claims and so on, which were quite useful in ensuring that a number of disabled people were able to access work, could be made permanent?

I have two further questions, but they are short.

Have you at any point insisted on adult disability payment eligibility criteria and descriptors remaining unchanged from those that are used in PIP?