The Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2026: SCoSS response to the Scottish Government

Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice
Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP

19 January 2026

By email only

Dear Cabinet Secretary

The draft Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2026

Thank you for your letter of 13 January 2026 regarding the Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2026. This letter is the Commission’s report on these draft regulations.

We note that the draft regulations include miscellaneous amendments which were shared with us in advance. We reported on these on 5 December 2025. We were grateful for this advance referral which allowed more time for consideration. We have no further issues to raise on the draft regulations.

For the future, we recognise that a multi-criteria decision analysis of up-rating options was completed in 2024 and would like to reiterate our view that this process should be repeated in due course.

We hope you find this letter helpful and we welcome your feedback.

Yours sincerely

Ed Pybus
Chair
Scottish Commission on Social Security