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Good morning. I want to ask you about Social Security Scotland. So far, it seems to have been classed as a good-news story as far as systems are concerned. However, on day 1 of the launch of the new Scottish child payment, the system crashed. Can you tell us a bit more about what happened and about any learning that you have taken from that?

Do some people get an automatic entitlement to the Scottish child payment, or does everybody have to apply?

You said that the system did not crash, but the person in the street who did not get access would have thought that it had. Did you not expect to get everybody applying for that payment at the same time? It was widely advertised in advance, and we were all told to advertise it on social media. You would have been expecting to have 150,000 applications. Should you not therefore have done things in a different way?

So none of it is automatic.

Good morning. Page 9 of the briefing states:

“Without very close management of the budget, there is a real risk the Scottish Government overspends against its 2022/23 budget”.

Paragraph 24 states:

“Early in 2022/23, the Scottish Government was forecasting a significant budget gap for the financial year, which was larger than could be managed through its usual budget processes.”

Paragraph 25 goes on:

“The Scottish Government has recognised that the financial situation it faces is by far the most challenging since devolution … The potential consequences and how this would take shape are unclear at this stage.”

Can you share your views on what the potential consequences are? To what extent might the Scottish Government be preparing for that outcome?

What scope might there be for the Scottish Government to identify further savings or carry out a reprioritisation of budgets to achieve a balanced budget for 2022-23?

You have touched on some of the points in my next question. At the fifth bullet point of paragraph 29, the briefing states that reductions in spending include

“£53 million in funding for employability schemes, and £38 million of mental health spending that has been reprioritised to support the NHS pay offer.”

How is the £53 million reduction in funding for employability schemes likely to impact on achieving targets for tackling child poverty? Will your future work in adult mental health consider the extent to which the services have been impacted on by the £38 million of spending that has been reprioritised?

I want to look at data and outcomes and at ensuring that the actions that are being taken are achieving the outcomes that we desire. I refer to what Bill Scott said. It is about ensuring that every pound that we spend is well spent and that we are focusing money in the right areas. How can the Scottish Government and councils improve national and local data? How can we ensure that they fully capture and measure the impact of actions on outcomes?

Does Hanna McCulloch want to come in on that?

I am an MSP for South Scotland.

Can you tell us why the decision was made? You say that you look ahead for things. Was there a reason why it was to be announced in August?