Chamber and committees

Yes—it is probably for all three of you, but feel free to go first.

Thank you; that is no problem at all. It seems to be the case with a lot of the discussion on this issue. Karon, do you have anything further to add?

I am sorry, Naomi. Does Sharon Cowan have anything to add on the particular point?

Various bits of research have been done to identify people who are trans but who do not yet have a GRC. Do you therefore think that people are missing from that? If so, who are those people who you think will come forward for a gender recognition certificate and who are not yet known to any services or organisations?

I have one more question for you, and then I will move on. I agree that there will be some people who want to harm women, but do you think that those bad actors feel that they need a gender recognition certificate to do that?

Thank you—I appreciate that. I have a final question on that area, which is around the unemployment rate. You note in your papers that the unemployment rate is low. Will you tell us something about the types of jobs that people are accessing? What is the whole picture? Obviously, if people have low wages or are in insecure work, that affects tax take. Can you tell us anything deeper about those figures and how they affect the funding envelope that is available?

I appreciate that. You gave a similar answer earlier, but when you mentioned youth employment I thought that maybe I had worded it badly the first time around and there was more, but I take that point. Thank you for that.

My final question is about cost of living issues and, in particular, the Scottish Government’s child poverty delivery plan. Does the spending review and your forecasting take account of the money that will be required to deliver that plan? Can you see anything in the Government’s plans that shows that there will be money attached to each of the outcomes within the delivery plan?

Are there any plans to look at other factors, including employability support, particularly given the constraints that colleagues have highlighted in other areas in the budget?

No, that is okay. It is important that we have a dialogue on this.

Disabled people will be watching this and, I guess, worrying, as anyone on DLA transferring to either PIP or ADP will worry. As I am sure that everyone appreciates and understands, it is not a great feeling when a review happens, and the communication and the messages that you put out will be important. Given that, over the years, your Government and my own party in particular have been saying that the changes from DLA to PIP were concerning and given the many problems that you had when the UK Government changed to PIP, have you at any point considered replicating some of the DLA systems in ADP to create a like-for-like benefit for the people concerned?

Thank you—that was really clear. However, what I am trying to get at is whether, in designing ADP, you at any point considered replicating the best aspects of PIP and DLA to ensure that the ADP transfer system would be much smoother for anyone coming from DLA or PIP as a result of its being able to look at the eligibility criteria across both.