Chamber and committees

That would be very helpful—thank you.

Thank you very much. Have you concluded your questions, Evelyn?

The second item of business is to decide whether to take agenda items 6 and 7 in private. Does the committee agree to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

That is great—thank you.

Agenda item 3 is another decision on taking business in private. Do members agree to take consideration of our draft stage 1 report on the Carer’s Allowance Supplement (Scotland) Bill in private at future meetings?

Members indicated agreement.

Under agenda item 4, the committee has been asked to consider the Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021, which increase payments and uplift the income threshold for some of the qualifying benefits under the Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Regulations 2019 (SSI 2019/193).

The proposed updates to the regulations are welcome, and I am pleased to see them. However, I note that there was a manifesto commitment to remove the income threshold for universal credit over the course of the parliamentary session. There is also a question about the use of “no recourse to public funds” as a qualifying criterion. I think that colleagues would be interested to know the Scottish Government’s position on those matters.

Do members have any comments to make before I suggest a way forward?

As members do not have any comments to make, I propose that the committee write to the minister to ask for further clarification on those points. Are members content for me to do so?

Members indicated agreement.

I welcome everyone back to another evidence-taking session on the Carer’s Allowance Supplement (Scotland) Bill. We are joined by our second panel: Ben Macpherson, Minister for Social Security and Local Government and Andrew Strong, senior policy officer, carer benefits policy, from the Scottish Government. They are supported remotely by Kate Thomson-McDermott, head of case transfer and carer benefits unit, and Stephanie Virlogeux, solicitor, also both from the Scottish Government.

I invite Mr Macpherson to make an opening statement.

Thank you for those remarks, Mr Macpherson. I welcome you to your new role. Obviously, you now have an important remit, and I congratulate you on your appointment.

Moving to questions from members, I think that it would be helpful if colleagues highlighted the person to whom they were referring their questions. I suspect, though, that I know who it will be.

I invite Jeremy Balfour to ask the first question.

Yes.

Our main item of business consists of two evidence-taking sessions on the Carer’s Allowance Supplement (Scotland) Bill. I put on record my thanks to everyone who responded to the committee’s call for views over the summer and acknowledge the tight timescale in which they did so. I also thank the clerks and the committee team for pulling all that together ahead of today’s meeting, which I know involved a lot of work.

I welcome our first panel, the members of which are joining us remotely. Salena Begley is partner engagement manager for the Family Fund; Fiona Collie, who is policy and public affairs manager at Carers Scotland, is representing the national carer organisations; and Colin Toal from Lanarkshire Carers is an unpaid carer.

Before we kick off, I would like to make a few housekeeping points about the format of the meeting. I ask witnesses and colleagues to wait until I say your name or the member who asked the question says your name before speaking and to allow our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to make sure that your microphone is on before you start to speak. Witnesses can also indicate that they wish to speak by putting an R in the dialogue box in BlueJeans or by raising a hand. I or my clerking colleague will try to get to you as quickly as possible. Please do not feel that you have to answer every question—if you have nothing new to add to what has already been said by others, that is okay.

We have a lot to cover this morning, so I ask everyone to keep questions and answers, and any follow-up questions, as tight as possible.

Colleagues in the room should indicate to me or the clerk if they wish to ask a supplementary question. As I have said, I will do my best to get to everybody, as far as possible. Committee members who are participating online should use the chat box or WhatsApp, if possible. We are tight for time, but I will try to give all members an opportunity for questioning.

I invite colleagues to ask questions in turn, starting with Jeremy Balfour.

Thanks, Colin. That is very helpful. I also thank Jeremy Balfour.

The next set of questions is from Pam Duncan-Glancy.