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I will come back to the committee with more detail on that. The point that I am making is that new standards are better at meeting the needs of people with mobility requirements.

The housing to 2040 strategy is clearly a journey that will take place over a longer timeframe for meeting higher standards. I want to get to the position that is set out in the vision for housing to 2040 sets out, which is that at the end of the journey, all homes, particularly new homes, should be barrier free. We are on a journey on that. I will come back to the committee with a bit of detail on targets and timeframes along the way to housing to 2040.

No, not that we are aware of, although we will always encourage the UK Government to do that. We are doing what we can to support carers—I am happy to go into that in a bit more detail at some point during this evidence session.

On Marie McNair’s earlier point about mitigation, the Scottish Government has invested £114 million in the past financial year to directly mitigate the impact of UK Government cuts through discretionary housing payments, which I mentioned, but also through the Scottish welfare fund. That investment is part of £367 million that has been invested above funding through block grant adjustments received from the UK Government to deliver financial support through social security.

We continue to do what we can, but we cannot mitigate everything. Whether on carers or other benefits, the UK Government needs to step up to the plate.

I am certainly not aware that there is a cohort of people who would lose any benefit, but I might bring Kevin Stevens in on that. I am happy to write back to the committee with more detail on that. If anything, the ADP criteria mean that, as I laid out in previous answers, people moving across will be more likely to retain, rather that lose, their entitlement. I am not quite sure where the evidence that Jeremy Balfour mentioned has come from, but I am happy to look into that.

Does Kevin Stevens have anything to add on the specifics of that?

Okay. I am happy to write to the committee with more information.

That is always a concern because of the hybrid system. Any reduction in benefits spend by the UK Government will have a direct impact on what is available here in Scotland. That has always been the case and is one of the difficulties of the system. Emma Roddick will no doubt be aware of the green paper that has been produced.

There could well be divergence between policies north and south of the border on disability benefits. At the moment, we do not know what that would mean for the quantum that would be spent by the Department for Work and Pensions. If it were to increase, that would clearly be of benefit to the Scottish budget, but if it decreased there would be a reduction. That would be extremely difficult, given that we have already spent beyond the money in the block grant and have put additional Scottish Government money into social security. The block grant’s being reduced would clearly make our situation very difficult. That is one of the challenges with the current system; it is a big concern.

First, no money for homelessness services will be lost. The money that will support them is guaranteed, and however and whenever it is paid, it will certainly not be lost.

A general point on the local government settlement—Miles Briggs is obviously aware of the exchanges that we had with the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee—is that we have tried to ensure that local government gets a fair settlement within a very difficult fiscal and financial environment. We recognise that our partnership with local government is critical to delivering many of the services that relate to poverty. A lot of the money that I have talked about today will be routed through local government. I have mentioned a number of examples of that, including discretionary housing payments and the Scottish welfare fund, both of which support people who require support.

We have made additional moneys available for advice services and we expect them to be maintained. We recognise the role that local government has in ensuring that people have access to the information that they need. That is in addition to the work of our third sector partners and our work to make sure that people are aware of the support that is available, including the national campaigns that are run. We will continue to have those discussions with local government, but the advice services are an important aspect of that.

Any changes that increase funding for social security at Westminster have a positive benefit on our budget and, of course, as we talked about earlier, the reverse is also true. I would encourage a review of the 20m rule as part of the green paper. Having the DWP reviewing disability benefits from a positive point of view at the same time as we look to review the ADP and its criteria would be very helpful.

If we could reach a common understanding and agreement, that would allow people’s reserved benefits not to be put in jeopardy. If the UK Government’s direction of travel on disability benefits were more flexible and more generous, that would, of course, help the situation here in Scotland on the budgetary position and on the scope of change of criteria as well.

You make an important point and, as I alluded to earlier, looking at the budget and the child poverty delivery plan in March, it has to be across the Government; it cannot all be from my portfolio. That is why all cabinet secretaries were tasked with looking within their own budgets to see what more they can do to help us meet the interim targets.

I think that we have a good track record. In 2020-21, we invested £2.5 billion to support low-income households, which was an increase of £540 million on the year before, and £978 million was targeted directly at children in low-income families. That includes key investment and support targeted at children, such as winter hardship payments, attainment Scotland funding and pupil equity funding. There is the broader low-income support, such as the council tax reduction scheme, which amounts to about £351 million, discretionary housing payments, which I referred to earlier, and the Scottish welfare fund.

In the round, the 2022-23 budget continues significant investment along those lines to tackle poverty, with more than £3.9 billion towards benefit expenditure. We are committing £831 million towards the delivery of affordable housing; £80 million to discretionary housing payments; the first £50 million of the whole family wellbeing fund; £10 million for the tackling child poverty fund; £200 million for the Scottish attainment challenge; £70 million to continue to fund the expansion of free lunches for children in primary 4 and 5 and special schools; £22 million to provide meals during school holidays; and £65 million for employability support for those most impacted by Covid. Of course, within the local government settlement there is funding for things such as the Scottish welfare fund.

That is quite a comprehensive package in the round. There is always more that can be done and we are keen to hear what more people think we could be doing, but that has to be within the context of a fixed budget where decisions like this have to be made, and I think that we have prioritised support for low-income families.

The first thing to say is that, thankfully, council tax is lower in Scotland than elsewhere, which is helpful. Further, and importantly, the council tax reduction scheme is there to ensure that no one has to pay a council tax liability that they cannot be expected to afford. Presently, about 480,000 households—nearly one in five—benefit from a council tax reduction, and that is important. The local government budget includes £351 million to compensate councils for the reduction in council tax receipts that derives from the operation of the council tax reduction scheme.

Taken in the round, the basket of measures that support families—including discretionary housing payments, the Scottish welfare fund and the benefits and supports that are paid through Social Security Scotland—demonstrate that the Government has a good track record in this area. The Scottish child payment is critical, and we have committed to doubling it. Those measures are available in Scotland and nowhere else in these islands.

All Governments have to look at the cost-of-living issue—for example, we have been calling on the UK Government to be far more proactive in tackling rising food and energy costs. The cost-of-living pressures are being felt across the whole of household income and expenditure. Of course, the Scottish Government has a responsibility to support families as best we can. I outlined in my previous answer some of the ways in which we are doing that, including through the welfare fund, discretionary housing payments and the Scottish child payment.

We announced a winter package of £41 million to support families with food and fuel costs and other household income pressures. Our Government has a good track record on supporting families, but we need to look at what more we can do. I am always open to discussions about how we can support families. The next few months will be really challenging, particularly in relation to energy costs, and it cannot be just the Scottish Government that responds to that. We need more from the UK Government to support families and household incomes.