I remind members of my voluntary entry in the register of members’ interests.

To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates the first payment of employment injury assistance will be made. (S6O-03503)

The Scottish Government launched a consultation on employment injury assistance on 30 April. The consultation, which closes on 24 June, will provide vital insights into how employment injury assistance can better meet the needs of disabled people in Scotland in the future and is an important first step in the longer-term reform of the United Kingdom industrial injuries scheme in Scotland.

Four years after the devolution of the benefit, the Government has finally launched this consultation paper, in which it admits that there is widespread concern and in which it admits that this has been a low priority. The new First Minister has promised us more concrete actions and fewer strategy documents, and yet here we are with yet another consultation paper. Does the Cabinet secretary not understand that those former professional footballers with dementia, those firefighters with cancer, those workers across occupations who are suffering from long Covid, and all those women workers with industrial injury and disease contracted through their work expect more understanding, demand more urgency and deserve more concrete actions from this Government?

The Women Against State Pension Inequality deserve urgent action, and the women who required equal pay deserved urgent action. I am not entirely sure where Richard Leonard was when those issues were being discussed, particularly those in Glasgow.

It is important that we develop a system that is done in consultation. That is exactly why we have a social security system in Scotland that is working effectively. One of the challenges is that, since the war, successive Governments of every colour have led us to a UK industrial injury scheme that consists of warehouses of paper forms. That scheme is not fit for purpose, nor has it been changed by any Government. I appreciate that there is frustration about the need for change; it is unfortunate that people have not seen that change under successive UK Governments for decades.

Based on what the Cabinet secretary just said, will she confirm that transferring the current system to Scotland must be the emphasis and that it is a major task? Will she also point out, or ask Richard Leonard, where the money for all the extra benefits that he is looking for would come from?

John Mason knows—and I hope that many members across the chamber understand—that our position has always been to have a safe and secure transition of benefits from the UK Government to a system here in Scotland. That is all done based on dignity, fairness and respect.

The member is quite right to point out that we need to ensure that the transfer is done safely. That is exactly why—again, we go back to the point on the urgency of a consultation, which will be considered by Government—we need to take account of the changes that people want to see. The existing scheme has seen no changes since it was introduced in the post-war era.

Cost will be a factor, but it is important that it is only one factor. We need to ensure that we deliver a system that provides dignity, particularly for those the system has failed to date.

The availability of expertise on industrial diseases has been raised as an issue for any potential future Scottish employment injury assistance advisory council. Will the Cabinet secretary confirm what scoping has been carried out to see whether enough experts in that field are available in Scotland?

As briefly as possible, Cabinet secretary.

The member raises an important practical point that we need to look at. It is disappointing that the United Kingdom Government has ensured that we—the Scottish Government—cannot ask the current council for advice, which means that we need to look for other approaches, and we will do that through the consultation.