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Thank you, Mr Balfour. As you would expect, as new case law emerges, we regularly and consistently consider its application and its repercussions for all the benefits to which it relates.

We are absolutely committed to considering case law that emerges in different parts of the UK and its repercussions for our system and for people in Scotland. Kayleigh Blair, from the Scottish Government legal division, will speak briefly about that.

I would be grateful if Kayleigh Blair would answer Mr Balfour.

It is an important point.

It may be helpful to the committee if I bring in David Hilber to add to what I have said about case transfer.

Yes—they are absolutely good use of resources, because they will help people throughout their journey. There was strong demand for those initiatives to be introduced during the progress through Parliament of the Social Security (Scotland) Bill in 2016-17, which became the 2018 act. Those things are investments in the people of Scotland and are the result of extensive consultation of people with experience of the social security system, and of disabled people’s organisations and experts. I am confident that that will result in a significantly better experience for people who apply for and receive the adult disability payment.

That, too, reflects points that I made earlier—that it is hugely important that social security be treated as a human right, and that we want to deliver it using the principles of dignity, fairness and respect that we are committed to.

Is that question about the review of the adult disability payment?

This is a significant moment. We are delivering in as straightforward a way as possible, we will always start from a position of trust and people will be able to choose how they apply and the channel that best meets their needs. We will fund the independent advocacy service, so there will be no DWP-style assessments or functional examinations. We will need to collect only one piece of formal supporting information when making a decision, and the onus will be on Social Security Scotland to collect that on people’s behalf.

We will give equal consideration to all sources of information, including the client’s family, carers and friends. Importantly, and as has been emphasised throughout our discussion, we will apply the eligibility criteria fairly and consistently to get more of our decisions right the first time. We will take full account of people’s needs and fluctuating conditions, and people will still be able to access short-term assistance if they challenge an adult disability payment decision. Finally, we will, of course, fast track applications from people with a terminal illness.

We are doing so much that we should all be positive about. Of course, as we have discussed, as the process of delivering the adult disability payment combined with the case transfer process progresses, the review and further discussion will help us to think collectively about what future constructive changes we can make over and above these significant improvements.

The evaluation programme will assess the operation of key aspects of the delivery of the new benefits, including the new procedures that are applicable to the adult disability payment as they unfold, such as the provision of supporting information, special rules for terminal illness, client consultations, case transfer from UK benefits and decision-making processes.

The first of those thematic evaluations is an assessment of the operation of the provision of supporting information for benefit decisions, drawing on the experience of the child disability payment, which will be commissioned later this year, and further aspects of evaluation that might require more evidence from the adult disability payment in particular, such as consultations, terminal illness rules and award duration that require the caseload to build up over time and the consequences to emerge. We will of course be cognisant of that.

The engagement of stakeholders has been so important up to this point. We invite academic and third sector organisations to our annual social security evaluation forum to discuss our approaches to evaluating benefits. We will continue to engage with stakeholders appropriately and meaningfully. As I have said throughout our considerations today, we deeply value the input of our stakeholders, not just in considering the regulations before us but through the whole process of establishing Scotland’s new social security system, which is making and will continue to make a significant and meaningful difference for people in our communities all across the country.

Members will be aware that short-term assistance is available only in the Scottish social security system and not in the DWP system. I emphasise that that is another point on which our system will be different and more supportive of people.

As members will know, short-term assistance supports people when challenging a decision and accessing their rights under the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. That addresses barriers to accessing justice by removing certain financial disincentives to challenging decisions that exist in the UK DWP system. However—this is the important point in answer to Mr Choudhury’s question—child disability payment and adult disability payment are separate forms of assistance with different eligibility criteria, and short-term assistance is not designed to be a bridge payment between two forms of assistance.

Extending the scope of the short-term assistance in that way would represent a significant departure from the current policy intent, as it would require short-term assistance to be paid based on an award for which a client was no longer eligible, because of their age or because they are in receipt of the adult disability payment.

Continuing to pay a client’s previous award during a redetermination relies on the client having a previous award for a particular form of assistance that has been reduced or stopped. If short-term assistance were to be extended to cover moves between forms of assistance, it would be paid based on a different payment relating to different eligibility criteria to cover a period where a client was challenging a decision on a separate form of assistance. In effect, short-term assistance is available for the redetermination and appeals process, not as a bridging payment.

Thank you for the question. Yes, I do feel that. The feedback from Bill Scott to the committee on 16 December, on the difference that the local delivery teams have made in delivery of CDP and in helping people to make their applications, was powerful. It will be the same for the adult disability payment. The pandemic and the restrictions have, of course, had an impact on, for example, local delivery teams offering face-to-face assistance in community settings or people’s homes. However as restrictions ease, those things will have more prominence. Local delivery teams being within local authorities is making an impact when people apply; it is a significant improvement that has been introduced in the Scottish social security system and it is making a positive difference in communities.

We have prioritised awards to clients who are between 15 and a half and 18 and are transferring from child disability payment to adult disability payment in order that we can ensure that they will be receiving child disability payments and can be supported by Social Security Scotland when it is time for them to transition. That minimises the need for people who require an appointee on turning 16 to have to go through two appointee processes—one with the DWP and another with SSS—when their awards are transferred. We also decided to prioritise people who meet the special rules for terminal illness in order to ensure that they can avail themselves of our more generous eligibility rules as soon as possible.

We are still working with the DWP to determine how we will prioritise the awards of clients who are under 15 and a half, but we will do so in a way that best minimises the biggest impacts for those who are staying within the DWP system. I hope that that is helpful.

I do not want to be definitive and say that it has never come up, but it was not a point of negotiation, because in order to deliver the adult disability payment safely and securely, the discussions had to take place prior to my appointment. The engagement around the adult disability payment has been on-going for some time. Its introduction was unfortunately delayed due to the pandemic, because the DWP had to reprioritise resources, and the Scottish Government and Scotland as a whole had to deal with the pandemic situation. The decisions were part of considerations, negotiations and discussions in the past period.