Seòmar agus comataidhean

I will skip Gemma Grimes and go to Matt Hannon—apologies, Gemma. Matt, do you want to comment briefly?

Those are all helpful points. Thank you for that.

I will roll my questions together and ask them of each witness once, and then I will have had my time, convener.

Oil and gas has come up a few times. We heard some evidence from the renewables sector that the energy profits levy might be counterproductive more generally because of its impact on the economy. We have also heard about links with skills and the skills sector, and how renewables can wash its face financially in the same way as the oil and gas sector can, although I would note that, over the years, oil and gas has had significant and deep tax cuts, and billions of pounds of taxation has been forgone to promote the development of oil and gas. We need to be balanced when we talk about the subsidies that the different sectors have had.

The Scottish Government does not have powers over licensing and production in the North Sea, because they are reserved to the UK Government, but I would be interested to hear your views on that and it would be good to put them on the record. I would also be interested to hear whether the levels of activity in the oil and gas sector have a direct impact on renewable energy more generally. It would be really helpful to get some of that on the record.

Gemma Grimes, I will start with you, as I did not ask you the last time.

Professor Hannon, do you want to come in?

I absolutely would, Mr Wallace. The idea is to flex the workforce, so that it can expand and contract without taking on long-term or permanent full-time equivalent staff who are not required. It is the organisation’s job to be fleet of foot and innovative in that regard. I am sure that future committees will want to scrutinise that in more detail.

I will stick with the adult disability payment. Our SPICe briefing notes that the authorisation rate has dropped from 50 per cent in 2023 to 35 per cent in summer 2025. I have no idea why that is the case. Why is it the case?

I am content with that answer, Mr Wallace. An efficient organisation is not always the same as an organisation that makes financial savings. If you run an efficient organisation, it costs what it costs. I totally accept that as an answer.

My final question is about the completion of case transfer. Does that free up resource? If so, how does that get directed? Does it feed back into processing times and call waiting times? Can you say a bit about that? I have had more than a fair share of time, so I ask for a brief answer so that we can put something on the record, please.

Thank you.

Good morning, everyone. I will focus a wee bit on processing times for applications and call waiting times. I will pick on adult disability payments, because they have been the most challenging within the organisation. It would appear from the figures that I am looking at that call waiting times and processing times are nudging up again. I know that you will tell me that they are still much lower in comparison with the peak, when things were not going so well, but they are nudging up again. Can you explain to me why they are starting to nudge up again?

I appreciate that answer. I do not think that you want to be drawn into a discussion about mean, mode and median—I feel like I am back at school—but, obviously, at different times of the year, there will be waits that are average and waits that are longer. Putting all that to one side for a moment, I imagine that the organisation plans for surge demand. You used the word “seasonal”. Is there a surge demand strategy? I am not asking you to give it to me in detail this morning, but I would like an assurance that there is a strategy. If so, does it need to be reviewed? A surge demand strategy should mean that you can cope without waiting times going up.

I will roll that into my next question. My understanding is that everything is linked, because the same person who is answering the phones is dealing with casework. If someone spends more time answering phones, processing times may go up because they will also deal with cases. I seek some reassurance that the organisation is dealing with surge demand as work in progress and that it can flex during times of seasonal demand, rather than committee members such as myself asking why demand is going up.

I accept all that. I do not want to sound curmudgeonly, but I am not asking you to speculate; I am asking you to analyse and understand the figures and then take appropriate steps in the organisation. Thirty-five per cent is perhaps the right rate, but if it is not, we need to address what is going on in the system. We are at the tail-end of this parliamentary session, but a future committee will want to better understand those numbers, not quite in real time but in a structured way.

You told the Finance and Public Administration Committee in June that you were satisfied with the quality of ADP reviews. The SPICe briefing says that 5 per cent of the cases that are reviewed lead to a lower award or to no award, compared with 13 per cent for the DWP’s PIP. ADP appears to be more favourable in that respect, but does that mean that there is little scope for financial savings in that area? In other words, is that as lean as it can possibly be, or can we do better?

I suppose that I mean guidance for everyone, but I will leave that to the minister and his team. I am asking what the thoughts are currently on guidance.