Chamber and committees

Yes, just briefly. As I understand it, young people continue to get child disability payment for a short period after they turn 19 if their adult disability payment is decided within four weeks of their 19th birthday. However, the wait times are currently longer than four weeks. Can you provide reassurance about what happens to those individuals who are transferring from child disability payment to adult disability payment?

I hope that the cabinet secretary will accept that the waiting times for payment decisions are unacceptably long—they are more than double the waiting time in England and Wales. That cannot be something that we should accept. Does she agree with that?

I am saying to the cabinet—

—for the person waiting for the money, that is not an acceptable position, is it?

We also know from Social Security Scotland’s figures for May 2023 that 40 per cent of all applications for the adult disability payment were rejected. Although that is slightly lower than the average 47 per cent rejection rate for applications for personal independence payment across the UK, it is also an extremely high rejection rate. Has the Government identified the factors that need to be addressed to reduce that rate? Does the cabinet secretary have an explanation as to why rejection rates are so high?

I congratulate Paul Sweeney on securing what is an important debate, and I thank him for his tireless campaigning on the issue. Most of us in the Parliament agree that the UK presides over an asylum system that treats asylum seekers inhumanely.

Earlier this week, I visited the Muthu Glasgow River hotel in Erskine, which currently provides accommodation for around 160 asylum seekers. From the discussions that I had there, it was clear that travel costs remain a major financial burden for asylum seekers. Under current Home Office rules, as we know, asylum seekers are prevented from working, even though many have skills that we need. At Erskine, they receive a payment of £9.50 to cover essential costs, including travel. As Paul Sweeney and others have indicated, many at other sites receive far less.

It was clear that a lot of work has been done in Erskine. The staff have worked with Renfrewshire Council to ensure that young asylum seekers at the hotel are provided with concessionary bus travel under the scheme for people who are under 22 years old. That allows about 10 asylum seekers at the hotel to have bus passes, but that means that the remainder—the majority—are ineligible for any concessionary travel schemes that are currently offered.

Given the hotel’s location in Erskine, asylum seekers there often have to rely on bus travel to reach other parts of Renfrewshire or greater Glasgow—for example, to go to college. They often need to travel to appointments with their lawyers or to access volunteering and—as I said—education, but also to connect with members of their community who live further afield. We need to be aware of the language issues, as many asylum seekers do not yet have good English. Bus fares in the Erskine area can be as high as £5.20 per day, which is more than half the £9.50 payment that asylum seekers are given.

The recent travel choices trial that took place in Glasgow earlier this year highlights the positive impact that free bus travel can have on asylum seekers. It is clear that free bus travel for asylum seekers can work, and it is crucial that we encourage integration from day 1. I would be interested if the minister could outline any work that has been done on costings for such a scheme, to enable further discussion. It is important that the Parliament uses the powers that are available to us to ensure that asylum seekers in Scotland are treated as humanely as possible.

I fully appreciate that everybody on the panel plays a particular role within the judicial system and that they did not create the system as it looks. However, I would just say, speaking particularly as an Opposition member of this committee, that our role is to ask whether the bill will make any difference at all. Everybody on the committee—and this picks up on what Rona Mackay has said—has had many dozens of conversations about how the system is not working for those who are victims of rape, in particular, but other offences, too.

It has been said quite a number of times now that we have an adversarial system. The big question, then, is: is it possible to make changes to an adversarial system to deal with some of the genuine concerns that have been raised repeatedly, or do we need to look at a more inquisitorial model? If changes have already been made, what do they look like? If they do not seem to be resulting in a significant belief that things have changed substantially, would it be possible to make what would be relatively minor changes to address some of the genuine concerns that have been raised with us?

Does anyone on the panel have a view on that? Stuart, do you want to come in?

I welcome the Scottish Government’s response to the crisis. Given that aid is currently not getting into Gaza, how does the minister expect the money that has already been committed to be used? What work is being done to look at further support that could be given, in light of the siege and the worsening conditions?

We welcome the fund, which we hope will help many women. However, organisations such as Rape Crisis and Women’s Aid highlight other barriers that women face when looking to escape from abusive partners. Those include the lack of available accommodation and the fact that housing benefit rates are sometimes not high enough to cover the cost of a refuge. Will the Scottish Government seek to explore ways to improve the availability of safe housing for women who are experiencing domestic abuse?

The First Minister announced a freeze to council tax without consulting local authorities or his own Cabinet. Council tax is clearly a regressive tax. In the past, the Scottish Government has spoken about having a cross-party working group to look at alternatives, but that group has never been convened. What work is the Scottish Government doing to look at a replacement for council tax or alternative funding streams for local government?