Chamber and committees

Agenda item 2 is an evidence session on the winter heating payment. The Scottish Government laid the Winter Heating Assistance (Low Income) (Scotland) Regulations 2023 on 16 November 2022. The committee will consider the instrument next week with the Minister for Social Security and Local Government, but we decided to hold an evidence session ahead of that.

I welcome to the meeting Frazer Scott, chief executive officer at Energy Action Scotland, and Dr Mark Simpson, acting co-chair of the Scottish Commission on Social Security, both of whom are joining us remotely. Good morning, and thanks very much for your attendance.

Before we start, I will make a few points about the format of the meeting. Witnesses and members who are attending remotely should please wait until I or the member asking the question says your name before speaking. Please also allow our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn on your microphone before you start to speak. You can also indicate with an R in the BlueJeans dialogue box or simply with a show of your hand if you wish to come in on a question. Please do not feel that you have to answer every single question. If you have nothing new to add to what has been said by the other witness, that is okay. Colleagues who are in the room should indicate to me or the clerk if they wish to come in with a supplementary question. Members who are attending online should use the chat box or WhatsApp to do that.

We will kick off our questioning with Emma Roddick, the deputy convener.

I have sought some clarification on how many households received the cold weather payment during the past few years, so that we can get an understanding of who will lose out and who will gain.

Before Paul McLennan goes on, I think that Mark Simpson would like to come in on that point.

I will move straight back to you, Pam, for theme 5.

We will move to questions from the deputy convener, Emma Roddick.

We will move to our next theme.

We now move on to questions from James Dornan, who is joining us online.

Good morning, and welcome to the 34th meeting in 2022 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. Our first item of business is a decision on whether to take an item of business in private. Does the committee agree to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Sorry, Frazer, but can I stop you there? We can hear noise in the background and we want to be able to hear your answer.

I think that we are okay now. Please carry on.

That brings us to the end of our questions. I thank both of the witnesses for their evidence. The committee will consider the instrument next week, when the Minister for Social Security and Local Government will attend. The witnesses’ evidence has been extremely helpful in advance of that meeting, so I thank them.