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Of course, it all depends on an individual’s circumstances, too—I cannot speak generically. I am sorry to interrupt you.

Certainly. It is important that we prioritise the case transfer of any individual who would otherwise be required to apply for a PIP under the DWP business-as-usual rules. I know that colleagues will appreciate that. We have already made significant improvements to the assessment process for ADP and will apply the eligibility criteria fairly and consistently to all those entitled to ADP to ensure that the impact of a disability or health condition on an individual, including the impact on mental health conditions, learning disabilities and fluctuating conditions, are taken fully into account.

As Pam Duncan-Glancy has rightly emphasised, we have given a firm commitment to a wide-ranging independent review of ADP commencing one year after the national launch of ADP. In recent days, I have been in active discussions on that matter with officials, but in light of the extensive feedback that we received, we have made a further commitment to a two-stage review, with work beginning later this year, to identify what improvements can be made on the mobility criteria and what should be included in the scope of the stage 2 independent review. We will provide details on both as soon as we are in a position to do so. I appreciate that members, stakeholders and people more broadly are interested to get an update on the first stage, and I certainly give an undertaking to do that as soon as I can.

As I laid out in my answer to the deputy convener on the first questions on these regulations, our resourcing of the independent advocacy service has been set out and budgeted for and is being provided and scaled up. I have already talked about the £12 million that we have provisioned for welfare advice and the engagement with stakeholders that is being undertaken by officials. The agency and the Government have a very close relationship with relevant stakeholders, and the fact that, as we understand it, there will be around 100 transfers per month means that we have capacity in the systems in Scotland—both in Social Security Scotland, of course, and in the advocacy service—to be able to provide that support to those people.

It depends on the individual circumstances. We have to evaluate every case on the merits of the individual’s position and the fact that we will be doing every review from a position of trust. We have some awareness of what has happened with PIP but our system has differences built into it. I think that you heard about some of the implications of that from the Scottish Fiscal Commission earlier in the meeting.

We know that, going from DLA to PIP, about a third of people have received an increase, a third have received a decrease and a third have stayed the same. However, as I said, we will treat every case individually, as people would expect. We will project where we can, but we want to make sure that people are processed individually within their circumstances, and we do not want to prejudice that.

Budgets always have a degree of flexibility. We will consider the cost pressures in the course of the financial year, but we feel that we can absorb a £2.7 million increase.

As I said in my opening statement, the carers allowance supplement will be uprated by 6 per cent. In the period ahead, the Government will give on-going consideration to the carers allowance supplement additional payment, on which we passed additional legislation a number of months ago. I am sure that we will discuss that with the committee and in the chamber in the months ahead. However, I can confirm that the carers allowance supplement will be uprated by 6 per cent.

I respect Pam Duncan-Glancy highly, but I just want to emphasise again that since 2018 we have been building from scratch an agency that is now highly performing and which employs nearly 2,000 people. We have delivered several benefits; we will start to deliver our 12th on Monday; and seven of those 12 benefits, some of which we are discussing uprating today, are new and available only in Scotland.

That is an important question. I do not want to go into too much detail on the complexities of the internal correspondence within Government, although I will bring in Dominic Mellan if he wishes to add anything that is relevant.

Ministers have, of course, looked collectively at the situation that is before us, with the real pressures that families are encountering and will encounter in the period ahead, and we are determined to provide assistance and help where we can, using the powers and resources that we have. We looked at what we could absorb within the social security budget. The additional amount that we are allocating in order to undertake the uprating for the financial year ahead is £2.7 million. We have absorbed that within the social security budget.

I thank Marie McNair for those important questions. We have had no indication from UK ministers in the DWP or the Treasury of an intention to uprate above the September CPI figure of 3.1 per cent. Of course, we would encourage them to do so. In the regulations that we are laying, we have set out our intention and determination to uprate the six social security benefits that we can fully determine by 6 per cent. Of course, we are increasing the Scottish child payment by 100 per cent.

We are doing what we can, with the powers and resources that we have, to provide assistance. I would encourage the UK Government to also do the right thing and uprate social security benefits across the UK, especially in the areas where there is the current dual process of delivery and introduction by the Scottish Government and case transfer with regard to disability benefits—in particular, the child disability payment and the adult disability payment.

I would encourage the UK Government to increase PIP and the disability living allowance for working-age adults above 3.1 per cent and to look again at universal credit. The case for increasing universal credit and the other benefits that it controls is compelling and I hope that the UK Government does the right thing in the March statement.

I will come to those two points in turn. Of course, the regulations that were based on the September CPI rate followed the position that had been taken in previous years since we introduced the social security benefits—of uprating on that basis. The rising cost of living pressures that we saw before the invasion of Ukraine and have seen since it have, of course, changed the situation for all of us, and in particular for lower-income households and unpaid carers. The Government is committed to doing the right thing and helping people where we can. We therefore looked carefully at what we can do with our powers and our resources, and we have done what is necessary to ensure that we deliver the uprating.

With regard to the point about the social security benefits that are delivered under agency agreements, we cannot create a two-tier system. We will have people in the Scottish system and people in the reserved system until they transfer to the Scottish system, particularly those on disability benefits. I appreciate Pam Duncan-Glancy’s position, but the Government is moving at pace to undertake the delivery of devolved social security and to transfer people into our system in a safe and secure way.

We have had—and, in fact, are still in—a pandemic, and that has made it challenging for us to do all this to our original timetable. As a result, the timetable has had to change not just for the Scottish Government but for the DWP. The fact that Social Security Scotland will launch its 12th benefit on Monday and that seven of those 12 benefits are new is pretty remarkable, as is the fact that we have done all this since 2018. We are building an institution and an organisation that needs to be strong not just in the period ahead but for years to come, and that will rely on having a strong foundation.

In an ideal world, we would, of course, have had everyone in our system quicker than has happened, but these things take time. It is not as if we get a USB stick from DWP and plug it into our computer; the process is much more complicated, and we are undertaking it with diligence and responsibility.