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Thank you, minister. That is very helpful. I move to questions from colleagues. Some colleagues have indicated in advance that they would like to ask questions on certain areas; if others would like to come in, I ask them to indicate that to me in the normal way, whether in person or online. That would be very helpful.

Yes, that is a helpful suggestion. I am hoping that the committee can liaise with the Minister for Parliamentary Business on the timetable and the timescales. On the points that Ms Duncan-Glancy raises on SCOSS, your proposal to outline the resources would be very helpful and welcome, minister. We will continue to liaise with SCOSS to ensure that it has the capacity to carry out its scrutiny work.

Item 3 is consideration of the draft Winter Heating Assistance for Children and Young People (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021. The minister is now joined by Jana Eyssel, who is the disability benefits policy manager in the Scottish Government. Online we have Stephanie Virlogeux, senior principal legal officer, and a further legal representative from the Government, Natalie Barton. I ask the minister to make an opening statement.

Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the eighth meeting in 2021 of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee. I ask all members to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent. Apologies have been received from Natalie Don, and Evelyn Tweed is attending as Natalie’s substitute.

This morning, we are considering two Scottish statutory instruments. As outlined in the agenda, we will start with the draft Disability Assistance for Children and Young People (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 before considering the draft Winter Heating Assistance for Children and Young People (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021. There will be the opportunity for a changeover of officials between agenda items 2 and 3.

I welcome to the meeting Ben Macpherson, Minister for Social Security and Local Government, and Jennifer Sinclair, social security policy manager at the Scottish Government. Online, we are joined from the Scottish Government by David Hilber, team leader of case transfer policy, and Kirsten Simonnet-Lefevre, principal legal officer.

Before we move to questions from members, I invite the minister to make an opening statement on the Disability Assistance for Children and Young People (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021.

Your very helpful briefing points to changes that have had to be made to inflation forecasts. There are obvious reasons for that: volatility in the economy that is driven by residual and continuing effects of Brexit and the pandemic. I have two points. First, as we look ahead to the Scottish budget, how difficult will it be for you to predict inflation rates, given where we are with the fuel crisis, rising energy costs and other costs that are having an impact on households across Scotland? Secondly, where do you expect inflation to be around the time of the Scottish budget and Christmas?

What about the projected trends towards Christmas?

Inflation will clearly have an impact on Government priorities. If inflation squeezes household budgets as well as affecting the delivery of social security benefits, it will surely also affect the Government’s considerations.

Many thanks—that is helpful. Marie McNair has a supplementary question.

Our next item is an evidence session on the committee’s pre-budget work in preparation for the Scottish Government’s publication of its 2022-23 budget. I am pleased to see that we have our first panel of witnesses online today. The focus of the first panel is to take a broader look at the budget and to further explore child poverty targets. The focus of the second panel is the Scottish Fiscal Commission’s forecast social security spend, particularly its forecast for the adult disability payment.

I welcome to the meeting our first panel of witnesses, who are joining us remotely: Eilidh Dickson, policy and parliamentary manager at Engender; Satwat Rehman, director of One Parent Families Scotland; Jon Sparkes, chief executive at Crisis; and Lawrie Morgan-Klein, public affairs officer at StepChange. Thank you very much for joining us.

I have a few housekeeping points to mention before we kick off. Please allow our broadcasting colleagues a few seconds to turn on your microphones before you start to speak. Witnesses can indicate with an R in the dialogue box in BlueJeans or simply with a show of their hand if they wish to come in on a question. Do not feel that you have to answer every question if you have nothing new to add to what has already been said by others; that is okay, too. We have around an hour for this session and, as I have intimated to them already, could colleagues in the committee direct their questions to whichever witness they would prefer to answer, or to all the witnesses, whichever the case may be?

Pam Duncan-Glancy will ask the first set of questions.

As that is directed to all panellists, could I start with Eilidh Dickson, please, followed by Jon Sparkes, Satwat Rehman and Lawrie Morgan-Klein?