Chamber and committees

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app did not work. I would have voted yes.

You touched on the subject of my next question, which is about how people will be helped to decide whether they would be better off volunteering to move to ADP. You mentioned independent advice about award transfers. Will that advice be given by Social Security Scotland or will people be signposted to another advice service?

In relation to the case transfer communication strategy, which we discussed earlier, can the minister advise how this will be evaluated over time to ensure that it is working as planned? Following on from that, will statistics be published breaking down which elements of clients’ awards change following the post-transfer review? For example, will it be transparent how many people are losing out or gaining from this move?

Good morning. Will you expand on the plans for tailored communication as part of the support that will be available for people who transfer from DLA to ADP?

You have touched this morning on some of the matters that are impacting on the forecasts and will continue to do so, such as inflation, Scottish Government spending and the cost of living crisis. Can you advise how uncertain those forecasts are, and can you expand on any other areas that may impact the forecasts?

Absolutely. Thank you; I have no further questions on this theme.

That is extremely helpful.

One of the areas of uncertainty is UK Government funding, and we can see in the report that the Scottish Government’s funding from the UK Government falls in the period up to 2024-25, and that capital funding is decreasing over the next three years. I understand that social security funding works a little bit differently and that we receive BGAs based on UK payments, but that means that the UK Government’s decisions on social security will dramatically impact the Scottish Government’s position. Claire Murdoch, you touched on that earlier, so can you expand on how the SFC considers the impacts on forecasts depending on the level of spending from the UK Government?

Franziska, your evidence so far has been really useful and helpful. Thank you.

I will touch on transport issues. I find it really impressive that 79 per cent of all trips in Freiburg are made by bicycle, bus, train or on foot.

Thank you so much for your answers.