Chamber and committees

I will close the public part of the meeting. I invite committee members to move into private session. Members are invited to join the private meeting via the link provided.

Pam, did you want to come back in on this theme?

I thought that that would be the case.

We will move on to our next theme—workforce—which Jeremy Balfour will ask about.

I will go back to Jeremy Balfour, who has questions on remaining work and key risks. If any other members have questions to round us off, they should please say so in the chat bar. We have covered the questions as we have gone along.

Agenda item 4 is consideration of a negative instrument. The background information is outlined in paper 3. The instrument was laid under the negative procedure, which means that its provisions will come into force unless the Parliament agrees to a motion to annul it. No motion to annul has been lodged. Do members have any comments on the regulations?

Members: No.

As there are no comments, I invite the committee to agree that it does not wish to make any further recommendation in relation to the regulations.

Members indicated agreement.

Good morning, and welcome to the 25th meeting in 2022 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, which we are running as a fully remote meeting—it feels like a long time since we have done that. I have my dog wrapped in a blanket beside me, so I hope that he stays quiet for the entire time.

We have received apologies from Miles Briggs and Foysol Choudhury. Our first item of business is a decision on taking business in private. Are we agreed to take item 5 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Pam, do you have a supplementary question on that before you take us into the next section of questioning?

Welcome back. The next item of business is the second of our pre-budget scrutiny sessions. Our scrutiny focuses on the resource spending review and its impact on poverty, as well as the forthcoming equalities and fairer Scotland budget statement.

This week, we will hear from two panels. I welcome to the meeting the first of those: Danny Boyle, senior parliamentary and policy officer at BEMIS, and Graham O’Neill, policy manager at the Scottish Refugee Council. Thank you both for joining us remotely today.

I have a few housekeeping points to make before we kick off. If you wait for our broadcasting colleagues to turn your microphone on before you start to speak, that will be helpful. The screen is in front of me so, if you want to come in on a point, please type R in the chat box or wave at me. There are only two of you, so it will be quite easy for me to keep track. We have approximately 50 minutes for this panel. I will invite members to come in in turn. If members direct their question to one of the two witnesses to kick us off, that will be helpful.

Our first theme is about the impact of the rising cost of living. To start us off, I will bring in the deputy convener, Natalie Don.

Good morning, and welcome to the 24th 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 members agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.