Chamber and committees

Miles Briggs will take us into our next theme.

In that case, I will move back to Jeremy Balfour.

Our last questions will come from James Dornan.

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 36th meeting in 2022 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. Our first item of business is a decision on whether to take items 4 and 5 in private. Do we agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

I will bring in Miles Briggs to ask a supplementary question and then to lead us on to the next set of questions.

I thank the witnesses for providing evidence this morning. It has been very helpful, especially in advance of our next session. I will briefly suspend the meeting to allow us to set up for our next panel.

Thank you. We will move on to questions, starting with Pam Duncan-Glancy.

Theme 6 is on error and fraud. I will bring in Pam Duncan-Glancy.

Once again, I thank the panel for attending this morning and for giving us your evidence. We will now move into private session.

Our next item is an evidence session on the Scottish Government’s 2023-24 budget with the Scottish Fiscal Commission. I welcome to the meeting Professor Graeme Roy, Professor David Ulph and Michael Davidson, who is the SFC’s head of social security and public funding. Thank you very much for accepting the committee’s invitation.

There are a few points to mention about the format of the meeting before we begin. Members who are attending remotely, please wait until I say your name before speaking. Colleagues who are in the room should indicate to me or the clerk if they wish to ask a supplementary question, and committee members who are online should use the chat box or the WhatsApp group. Before we move to questions, I invite Graeme Roy to make opening remarks.