Business Plan 2025-26

In line with the strategic objectives set out above, these are our priorities in 2025-26.

Scrutiny of draft social security regulations

We will undertake expert, independent, proportionate evidence-based scrutiny of draft regulations referred to us by the Scottish Government, including—

• Draft regulations arising from the enactment of the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025
• Draft Up-rating Regulations

We will review the volume, frequency and timing of referral of draft regulations to ensure that we have the time, capacity and resources to deliver proportionate scrutiny.

We will review the impact of our previous recommendations on the development of the Scottish social security system.

We will continue to develop our policies and processes to ensure that human rights and the social security principles are central to our scrutiny.

Social Security Charter

We will report on improvements that the Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland could make to better deliver expectations in the Charter.

Work alongside Scottish Ministers, the Scottish Government, Social Security Scotland, Scottish Parliament

We will gather feedback from Scottish Government, Social Security Scotland, and the Scottish Parliament on the impact of our scrutiny and Charter work.

We will work with the Scottish Government and Social Security Scotland staff to improve the shared understanding of our role as our remit expands under the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025.

We will engage proactively with, and when requested provide evidence to, the Scottish Parliament’s Social Justice and Social Security Committee.

Stakeholder engagement

We will continue to implement our stakeholder engagement strategy.

We will expand the ways we learn directly from stakeholders and people with lived experience on whether people are getting the service that the Social Security Charter says they should expect.

We will engage with the wider policy community to gather feedback on the impact of our scrutiny work.

We will explore mechanisms to directly bring external expertise into our work.

We will have a presence at relevant events to provide more information to stakeholders and others on our role.

We will make sure that we engage with stakeholders in an inclusive way.

Transparency and accessibility

We will publish all Minutes of Board meetings, Audit and Charter Sub-Committees and scrutiny reports on our website.

We will improve the accessibility of our website,

We will continue to improve the readability of our reports by using plain English and reducing the use of acronyms.

Governance

We will deliver on our corporate responsibilities, ensure that we create a sound governance framework and demonstrate value for money through our audited accounts.

We will review our governance, finance, performance and assurance framework and risk register on a quarterly basis at meetings of the Audit Sub-Committee.

We will streamline our governance procedures as legal requirements for external audit are removed under proposals in the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025.

We will review the governance of our Sub-Committees.

Finance

SCoSS will fully comply with the requirements of external audit, undertaken by Audit Scotland, and will publish an Annual Report and Accounts (2024-25) which will also be laid in the Scottish Parliament.