Annual Report for year ended 2025-26

The SCoSS Business Plan for 2025-26 sets out the strategic objectives and priorities that we have worked to achieve.  Our progress in meeting our strategic objectives during 2025-26 is discussed below.

Strategic Objective One

Scrutiny of draft social security regulations – We will provide expert, independent, proportionate and evidence-based scrutiny of draft social security regulations that is driven by the social security principles and human rights.

During 2025-26, the Commission undertook independent, evidence-based scrutiny of eleven sets of draft regulations. These were—

• The Carer’s Assistance (Young Carer Grant and Carer Support Payment) (Miscellaneous Amendment and Saving Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2025;
• The Two Child Limit Payment (Scotland) Regulations 2026;
• The Winter Heating Assistance (Pension Age) (Scotland) Regulations 2025;
• The Social Security (Residence and Presence Requirements) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2025;
• The Social Security (Residence and Presence Requirements) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2026;
• The Care Leaver Payment (Scotland) Regulations 2026; and
• The Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2026.

There were instances where draft regulations were referred to us more than once and often to reduced timescales.  Ensuring that our approach to scrutiny was proportionate in these circumstances ensured that we reported within all agreed timescales.

More generally, ensuring that the social security principles, equalities and human rights were integrated into our scrutiny work was central to our approach. We continue to develop processes and explore mechanisms to enhance our scrutiny work in relation to these issues.  On conclusion of all scrutiny reports, the Board allocates time at Board meetings to review the scrutiny process and consider improvements.  In 2026-27, we will review the impact of our previous recommendations on the development of the Scottish social security system.

During 2025-26, SCoSS made 41 recommendations to the Scottish Government. Of the 41 recommendations made, the Scottish Government—

• accepted 26 (63%),
• partially accepted 11 (27%), and
• rejected 4 (10%).

In the course of producing scrutiny reports, the Commission has provided detailed insight and feedback drawn from stakeholder evidence and the expertise provided by Commissioners in interpreting the technicalities of social security legislation at a practical level.

Where appropriate, reports have detailed the relationship between the regulations and existing human rights laws and each scrutiny report sets out a detailed analysis of the relationship of the regulations being scrutinised to the social security principles and how they are being, or could be better, realised.

For example, our report on The Care Leaver Payment (Scotland) Regulations 2026 noted that in order that the Scottish Government fulfils its human rights commitments, the determinations and appeals processes for Care Leaver Payment should include an application process and independent review alongside automatic payments. The Scottish Government partially accepted this recommendation, highlighting that it had subsequently inserted a new regulation providing that a young person can apply to any local authority if they feel that they should have received a payment but didn’t.

Additionally, while the Two Child Limit Payment was not introduced, during our scrutiny of its draft regulations, we proposed that for future developments affecting children the engagement of stakeholders should be expanded to include participation of children and young people as per Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Strategic Objective Two

Social Security Charter – We will provide independent challenge and advice on whether people are getting the service from the social security system that the Social Security Charter says they should expect.

Scrutinising whether the principles set out in the Social Security Charter are being met informs all SCoSS scrutiny. Accordingly, assessing progress in ensuring people are obtaining the service the Charter says they should expect is a regular feature of our scrutiny reports.

Following on from the publication of the Commission’s first report in 2024-25 under our Charter scrutiny function, the Charter Sub-Committee has undertaken a range of work in 2025-26.  This has included agreeing criteria for decision making regarding priority areas for future charter scrutiny and commissioning two external research reports considering two potential areas of further Charter scrutiny. Both external research reports will be published in 2026-27.

In addition, the Charter Sub-Committee met with representatives from Social Security Scotland on two occasions to discuss our Charter scrutiny work in 2025-26.

Strategic Objective 3

Work alongside Scottish Ministers, the Scottish Government, Social Security Scotland, Scottish Parliament – We will work alongside Scottish Ministers, the Scottish Government, Social Security Scotland and the Scottish Parliament as well as other key stakeholders, such as people with lived experience, to ensure our work constructively supports the development of a Scottish social security system based on dignity, fairness and respect.

The Commission has engaged with the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, notably through her attendance at the June Board meeting. Alongside this, the Commission consistently seeks constructive dialogue with and feedback from Scottish Government officials as part of our scrutiny processes.  The Chair and the Secretariat now meet regularly with representatives from Social Security Scotland with regard to our scrutiny / Charter work.  During 2025-26, Social Security Scotland research staff attended a Charter Sub-Committee meeting and shared their priorities.

The passage into law of the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025 resulted in a specific extension to the Commission’s remit relating to administrative regulations.  The Chair and Secretariat have engaged in a range of discussions with Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland officials on this issue and raise awareness with stakeholders of the changed remit of the Commission whenever possible.

All Commission scrutiny reports are provided to the Cabinet Secretary and the Scottish Parliament’s Social Justice and Social Security (SJSS) Committee. Charter scrutiny reports are also provided to Social Security Scotland. The Commission provided evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Social Justice and Social Security (SJSS) Committee on the work of the Commission in June 2025.

Strategic Objective Four

Stakeholder engagement – We will make engagement with people with lived experience of the Scottish social security system and engagement with other stakeholders central to our scrutiny.

In May 2025, we published our first ‘Stakeholder Engagement Strategy’. The strategy outlines objectives and priorities to ensure the involvement of a variety of stakeholders in the work of SCoSS with the aim of effective, appropriate and consistent engagement.

We have engaged with external stakeholders and people with lived experience of the devolved social security system across a wide range of scrutiny activity in 2025-26. For example, we received stakeholder feedback on the Two Child Limit Payment (Scotland) Regulations 2026 which was subsequently incorporated into our final report.

Currently, we are in the process of establishing an expert panel to provide advice during our scrutiny of draft regulations in relation to the issues of human rights and welfare rights.  We expect that the panel will become operational during 2026-27 and will provide an informal mechanism to bring further expertise into the scrutiny work of the Commission.  More generally, we continue to seek to expand our external contacts and attend relevant external events and conferences.  We continue to maintain an active profile on ‘X’ which, in March 2026, had 695 followers.  We also produce a quarterly newsletter which is distributed to 62 external stakeholders who have signed up to receive the newsletter.

Engagement with people with lived experience and stakeholders has also formed a key strand of our Charter scrutiny work.  For example, the Charter Sub-Committee organised a webinar on the experiences of people with communication needs in May 2025 which included live subtitling and sign language interpretation. This was also included in a video of the event uploaded to our YouTube account.  During the development of decision-making criteria for future charter research, the Charter Sub-Committee met with stakeholders to consider both the criteria and possible future areas of charter research.

Strategic Objective Five

Transparency and accessibility – We will be transparent about how we make our decisions and make our information accessible and inclusive.

The SCoSS Board met on ten occasions during 2025-26.  These meetings were supplemented by a number of ad-hoc Board meetings which were detailed in Board meeting minutes.  The minutes of all Board and Sub-Committee meetings as well as all the Commission’s scrutiny reports were published on our website during 2025-26.  As noted earlier in this report, the effectiveness of our scrutiny processes are considered by the Board following the completion of a scrutiny report.  This includes consideration of the accessibility and readability of our scrutiny reports.

In May 2025, we held a webinar presenting our charter research publication findings into the experiences of people with communication needs. The webinar noted the key findings and recommendations as presented to Social Security Scotland. In order to ensure an accessible and inclusive approach, the webinar was live signed and subtitles used. The webinar was also published on our website for future reference.

During March 2026, the Commission’s website was successfully migrated to Oracle Cloud.  The Secretariat are currently undertaking a review of the accessibility of the website with a view to making improvements to the accessibility of the website in 2026-27.

Strategic Objective Six

Governance and Finance – We will streamline our governance and finance processes.

The Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025 removed the Commission’s ‘body corporate’ status and requirement to be subject to external audit.  These changes have enabled the Commission to substantially reduce its governance workload.

During 2025-26, we reviewed the Commission’s governance and finance processes which has enabled these processes to be streamlined.  This has been reflected in the Commission’s Audit Sub-Committee being replaced by a Governance Sub-Committee with a new remit and responsibilities to oversee the Commission’s new finance and governance processes.

The 2025 Act has also enabled the implementation to take place, during 2025-26, of all of the recommendations made during the independent review of the Commission, undertaken by Glen Shuraig consultants.

As part of the review of the Commission’s governance, we reviewed and updated all of the Commission’s corporate documentation.  It is expected that the Commission’s Framework Document, which sets out our relationship with the Scottish Government, will be refreshed in 2026-27.

Section 44A of the Social Security (Scotland) 2018 requires the Commission to publish a report “containing information on the carrying out of its functions” after the end of each financial year.  This report fulfils that requirement for 2025-26.

The Commission’s Framework Document requires the Commission to report, in the annual report, on any instances of fraud or theft during the financial year.  There were no instances of fraud or theft in 2025-26.

Similarly, the Commission is required to report against the consumer duty and biodiversity duty.  In terms of the consumer duty, the Commission understands that individuals accessing the devolved social security are considered to be ‘consumers’.  In this context, assessing the impact on individuals of draft regulations is a key aspect of our scrutiny whilst our Charter scrutiny is focussed on assessing whether the principles contained in the Charter are being delivered to citizens in Scotland.

As an advisory non-departmental public body with a focus on scrutiny of devolved social security, the Commission’s work has limited direct impact on biodiversity. The Commission has, however, sought to minimise its environmental impact through its ways of working. For example, Commission board meetings and sub-committee meetings are predominantly held online reducing the need for travel. Where travel is required, the use of public transport is encouraged wherever possible. Secretariat staff are encouraged only to use printers if absolutely necessary with papers for all meetings provided in e-formats only.

During 2025-26, the last external audit of the Commission was successfully completed.  The Commission’s externally audited 2024-25 annual report and accounts was laid in the Scottish Parliament in September 2025.  The Audit Scotland report recognised that the Commission was demonstrating value for money.  We want to thank the auditors at Audit Scotland for their work in undertaking the external audit of the Commission since 2019.