Scottish Child Payment Regulations 2020: supplementary scrutiny report

The Commission’s first report on the Scottish Child Payment observed that its introduction has potential to contribute to the realisation of various objectives within the social security principles and human rights law. As with the Regulations under consideration then, the challenge is to put in place secondary legislation that ensures the policy intent is delivered without creating any unjustified inequalities of treatment or any avoidable administrative obstacles, which could undermine confidence. Some unforeseen teething problems are perhaps inevitable, but the additional provisions considered here at least show that where the Scottish Government has anticipated potential problems, there has been some creative thinking about how to reduce risks to the successful launch of the SCP. However, the additional provisions do not eliminate all risks and, as discussed in this report, may generate some additional ones which it will be necessary to mitigate, if the potential benefits of SCP are to be realised, and be seen to be realised.