Good morning and welcome to the sixth meeting in 2015 of the Welfare Reform Committee. I ask everyone to make sure that mobile phones and other electronic devices are on silent or switched to aeroplane mode.
Agenda item 1 is on the work programme. At our meeting on 10 March, the committee considered its work programme in private and agreed on a number of inquiries and evidence sessions that it expects to conduct in 2015. Those include an inquiry into women and welfare, an oral evidence session on the impact of welfare reform on children’s services, an oral evidence session on bedroom tax mitigation and an inquiry into the welfare powers that are to be devolved following the recommendations of the Smith commission.
There are a number of procedural points in connection with the work programme that must be agreed in public. The committee is asked to agree that consideration of any oral evidence that is received will be completed in private after the end of the public session; that decisions on witness expenses will be delegated to the convener; that all draft reports will be considered in private; and that the convener is authorised to seek approvals for committee events where necessary. Do members agree to those points?
Members indicated agreement.
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