Meeting of the Parliament 04 June 2024
I am happy to close the debate on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives. I add my thanks to those of pretty much every previous member in the debate to everyone who has participated in the process so far. As a member of the committee, I echo the committee convener’s comments regarding the valid points that many of the witnesses made. The evidence was robust and informative.
As has already been mentioned by the cabinet secretary and others, the bill is mainly a technical one, but we have an opportunity to look at how we can make social security in Scotland better. We should not shy away from in-depth scrutiny of it. We should look at our processes and structures and do what we can to improve them. I recognise the cabinet secretary’s positive engagement in that regard, and I thank her for her early response to the committee’s recommendations. I note the points that the cabinet secretary highlighted, and I am sure that the committee will discuss them at length as the bill continues through stages 2 and 3.
There will be little surprise in the chamber that I want to single out the responses on the proposals for payments for care-experienced people, which were mentioned by Paul O’Kane and Maggie Chapman. The responses to the public consultation that concluded in January are currently being independently analysed, and I look forward to additional information coming to the Parliament soon. Who Cares? Scotland currently receives funding for advocacy and support services, and it does a spectacular job in assisting thousands of care-experienced young people and school leavers every year. I look forward to advancing the issue in detail.
I will highlight a couple of other points—I would love to highlight more, but time is short. Paul O’Kane commented that 100 people have died before getting their adult disability payment, which starkly highlights why it is important that we make changes and continue to improve processes. I am glad that that was mentioned, because it should be highlighted.
It is also important to echo Bob Doris’s comments on the Scottish child payment and the calls for fuller data collection. Those calls were succinctly but forcefully made at committee, and more analysis of that is essential.