Chamber and committees

Thank you, that was very helpful scene setting. I will hand over to Emma Roddick for her question and then Pam Duncan-Glancy will ask a final one. We are running a wee bit over time and we have another panel coming in, but it is important that we discuss these questions.

Welcome back. Under agenda item 3, the committee will take evidence on the draft Disability Assistance for Working Age People (Transitional Provisions and Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2022. We are joined, in person, by Ben Macpherson, Minister for Social Security and Local Government, and Kate Thomson-McDermott, who is the head of carer benefits and the case transfer policy unit at the Scottish Government, and, remotely, by Kayleigh Blair, who is a solicitor for the Scottish Government, and Darren Kelly, head of operations, Dundee, at Social Security Scotland.

I invite the minister to make an opening statement.

I call Emma Roddick.

I will go back to Jeremy Balfour.

Agenda item 5 is consideration of a negative instrument. Background information was supplied to the committee in paper 5. Are members of the committee happy to note the contents of that?

Members indicated agreement.

Good morning and welcome to the 18th meeting in 2022 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. Our first agenda item is a decision on whether to take items 6 and 7 in private. Do members agree to take those items in private?

Members indicated agreement.

I will bring Miles Briggs back in, to be followed by Paul McLennan, who has a supplementary question. Paul will then start us off on our final theme, which is around the cost of living and the economic context.

We will move on to our last theme, which is about monitoring and evaluation.

Thank you for that opening statement. We move to questions from members. Deputy convener Natalie Don will kick us off. She will be followed by Foysol Choudhury, who joins us remotely.

We move on to questions on transitional protections from Pam Duncan-Glancy.