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Is Social Security Scotland open to those conversations?

Am I correct in thinking that the broad indicator is that there has been little growth in the productivity of the economy in recent years?

I will focus on the application process. I hear evidence so far of a globally acknowledged problem around special economic zones, special export zones and their impact on workers’ terms and conditions and their rights in those areas. I turn to Unite first. How important is it to have a transparent process of application and evaluation for such schemes?

Would it be acceptable to your organisation to have a process that had no published criteria or advertised application route, and for those decisions to be taken behind closed doors?

To appoint the successful bids.

There was a process and a prospectus there, but would it be acceptable to spend public money in the absence of a process and a prospectus?

That is a point well made. I put the same question to Unite. Would it be acceptable to spend public money without an application process?

It strikes me that, five years down the line, there could be such significant externalities from the behaviour of such a small group of people that the data points that we have talked about might be moot.

You talked about the increasing level of applications for adult disability payment. Is that matched by an increasing level of awards? Is there a differential between awards in the UK and in Scotland?

There are more applications, but is there a higher proportion of awards? Are more being approved?