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Statistics have previously shown that people in Scotland are waiting longer for their adult disability payment decision from Social Security Scotland than people in England and Wales who have applied for the personal independence payment through the DWP. The average wait time for an adult disability decision is around 19 weeks, in comparison to nine weeks for the personal independence payment decision, and the wait times have doubled over the past year. What steps is Social Security Scotland taking to reduce those waiting times?

Yes, just briefly. As I understand it, young people continue to get child disability payment for a short period after they turn 19 if their adult disability payment is decided within four weeks of their 19th birthday. However, the wait times are currently longer than four weeks. Can you provide reassurance about what happens to those individuals who are transferring from child disability payment to adult disability payment?

I hope that the cabinet secretary will accept that the waiting times for payment decisions are unacceptably long—they are more than double the waiting time in England and Wales. That cannot be something that we should accept. Does she agree with that?

I am saying to the cabinet—

—for the person waiting for the money, that is not an acceptable position, is it?

We also know from Social Security Scotland’s figures for May 2023 that 40 per cent of all applications for the adult disability payment were rejected. Although that is slightly lower than the average 47 per cent rejection rate for applications for personal independence payment across the UK, it is also an extremely high rejection rate. Has the Government identified the factors that need to be addressed to reduce that rate? Does the cabinet secretary have an explanation as to why rejection rates are so high?

I fully appreciate that everybody on the panel plays a particular role within the judicial system and that they did not create the system as it looks. However, I would just say, speaking particularly as an Opposition member of this committee, that our role is to ask whether the bill will make any difference at all. Everybody on the committee—and this picks up on what Rona Mackay has said—has had many dozens of conversations about how the system is not working for those who are victims of rape, in particular, but other offences, too.

It has been said quite a number of times now that we have an adversarial system. The big question, then, is: is it possible to make changes to an adversarial system to deal with some of the genuine concerns that have been raised repeatedly, or do we need to look at a more inquisitorial model? If changes have already been made, what do they look like? If they do not seem to be resulting in a significant belief that things have changed substantially, would it be possible to make what would be relatively minor changes to address some of the genuine concerns that have been raised with us?

Does anyone on the panel have a view on that? Stuart, do you want to come in?

Gordon MacRae has already spoken about reprioritisation. You will be aware that the medium-term financial strategy analysis highlighted a funding gap for the Scottish Government. In the light of that, how should the Scottish Government respond, and how should it prioritise its budget?

Would anyone like to comment on whether there have been any improvements in the transparency of the budget? Do you have any specific suggestions as to how the process could be improved?

That is helpful. Do all members of the panel agree that the commissioner having not only an investigatory ability but the ability to directly intervene in cases is necessary for the role to be effective? Is that a fair reflection of what you are saying?