Scottish Child Payment Regulations 2020: supplementary scrutiny report
Supplementary Scottish Commission on Social Security scrutiny report on the draft Scottish Child Payment Regulations 2020 with recommendations for the Scottish Government.
Contents
Introduction
The Scottish Commission on Social Security (SCoSS) is pleased to present its supplementary report on additional and revised provisions of the Scottish Government’s draft Scottish Child Payment (SCP) Regulations. It complements the Commission’s earlier report on the draft SCP Regulations, which the Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People referred to SCoSS in December 2019 and on which we reported in January 2020 . As noted in that report, the Regulations referred to us in December had a number of provisions missing, and it is on these provisions that the supplementary report focuses.
On 6 February 2020 the Cabinet Secretary formally requested SCoSS’s views on some additional draft SCP Regulations. These cover commencement provisions for the SCP, essentially the arrangements for its initial roll out. They also include updated text on provisions concerning the effective dates of change for determinations without application. Clearly, no doubt from everyone’s perspective, it would have been preferable for the full draft SCP Regulations to have been referred to SCoSS in one go. This would have enabled us to produce a single report, focusing on SCP and its roll-out in the round, and ultimately saved time. It would also have allowed us to seek stakeholders’ views on the complete draft SCP regulations.
This supplementary report has been completed in accordance with the Commission’s pre-legislative scrutiny function, set out in sections 22 and 97 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018. Section 97 requires us to carry out this role with regard to the Scottish social security principles and any relevant provisions of human rights law.
Our scrutiny of the additional provisions was informed by a briefing provided by officials, at our December 2019 board meeting, on the Scottish Government’s intended approach to the initial roll out of the SCP. The Scottish Government subsequently published an updated policy position paper on the SCP in January 2020, which describes the arrangements for its launch.