Seòmar agus comataidhean

Before I move on to the next theme, convener, I want, if we have time, to ask the briefest of supplementaries to Jeremy Balfour’s question.

My understanding is that, if the budget passes, the pilots will be incredibly important. There is a budget line for them, but I know that there have been some really positive pilots elsewhere in the UK. Indeed, Crisis has told me about a pilot between the Department for Work and Pensions—mainly Jobcentre Plus—and local authorities in the Newcastle area, but despite really positive outcomes, everything dissipated when the money came to an end, and best practice was shared neither in that area nor anywhere else in the UK.

From a budget scrutiny point of view, then, are there any assurances that you can give us that, as part of these pilots, we will be thinking about how we mainstream, embed and sustain any success that might come from them? Having a budget line for pilots might allow them to flourish, but it does not necessarily mean that a budget line has been identified to allow them to be embedded and to endure over the longer term.

That is helpful. I would not want the committee to be here this time next year—when we start to get initial emerging outcomes from what will still be fairly early pilots—discussing whether the next year’s budget will sustain those pilots for the longer term. I am saying that so that, next year, we can get assurances that this will be enduring and that it will be embedded in future financial years.

I will move on to talk about the third sector and voluntary sectors. Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector has stated that Labour’s NI increases could lead to job losses, fewer hours for staff and a reduction of services for Glaswegians. Of course, the third sector and the voluntary sector stretch right across Scotland. The cabinet secretary and the First Minister are in discussions with the UK Government to get full cost recovery in relation to the impact, not just for Government and Government bodies, but for the third and voluntary sectors.

What data does the Government have on the impact on the third and voluntary sectors? If we get money from the UK Government, we need to ensure that we know how to pass that money on to the relevant organisations that are planning for future financial years. Is the Scottish Government well sighted on the organisations that will need additional support to meet the further NI burdens?

I would like to ask about fair funding from the Scottish Government. Has the Government accepted that we must do far more in relation to fair funding for the third sector? The cabinet secretary will know that we are looking for longer-term multiyear awards for more organisations across the third sector. The Government always says, very sincerely, that it is keen to do more of that, not just directly, but through its funding bodies. However, we are never quite sure how many further multiyear awards are likely to be made. We are not very good at monitoring that kind of thing, so what reassurances could you give that, should the budget pass, there will be more multiyear awards? How will that be monitored? We are talking about a long-game initiative, so how can the committee and successor committees scrutinise that for the longer term?

I will roll my second question into my first. In those future awards, will any account be taken of national insurance increases, despite the lack of clarity from the UK Government? Will there be any cognisance of cost of living increases that those organisations will have to make more generally because of inflation?

That would be helpful. I am not sure whether the information will be across the board or just about the organisations in the pilot. If it is only on a select group, that will not give us a feeling for what is happening across the country. Will we get details of how many organisations have two-year awards, three-year awards and awards of more than three years? Will that be baselined against what has happened in the current financial year?

Okay, so—

Again, I suppose that I did not ask the concise question that I should have asked. If money is forthcoming from the UK Government, can the Scottish Government be fleet of foot to get that money into the pockets of the third and voluntary sectors in the coming financial year?

I also apologise to Jeremy for the confusion.

On Tuesday, I told the Parliament about a dad who lost a well-paid job following his wife’s sad passing away, and he had to claim universal credit for his four children. What is now Labour’s two-child cap means that the system that the dad claims universal credit under will not give the family enough money to live on. To put it quite frankly, that is shameful.

I welcome the mitigation steps, but has the Scottish Government given up all hope of the UK Labour Government doing the right thing and abolishing the two-child cap?

Has Liz Kendall, who chairs the child poverty task force on behalf of the UK Labour Government, confirmed that the Government is actively looking at scrapping the two-child cap, or does she just hope that it does so?

I want to check something. That sounds encouraging, but it is frustrating, because we have assertions and we need the correct data to analyse and scrutinise the situation. You have said that there will be more two-year awards. Do you recognise that two-year awards are at the lower end and are in fact far less than the minimum of three years that the third sector has been calling for? How many more two-year awards have been issued?

Your UK Government counterparts should be following this scrutiny session, so—