The Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024: scrutiny report
The Scottish Commission on Social Security's scrutiny report on the draft Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2024
Contents
- Document Cover
- Summary of recommendations and observations
- Executive summary
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Qualifying benefits for Best Start Foods
- 3. Who can claim and receive payment
- 4. Alternative forms of payment
- 5. Rate of payment
- 6. Approach to scrutiny
- Annex A: About the Scottish Commission on Social Security
- Annex B: Summary of key provisions in the draft Regulations
- Annex C: Stakeholder engagement
- Annex D: Scrutiny timeline
6. Approach to scrutiny
In keeping with our role to scrutinise social security regulations, this report provides commentary in connection with human rights and the social security principles set out in Section 1 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018,1https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2018/9/section/1/enacted as operationalised via Our Charter.2https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/about/our-charter
The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice referred the draft Regulations to SCoSS3https://socialsecuritycommission.scot/current-work/the-welfare-foods-best-start-foods-scotland-amendment-regulations-2024/referral-welfare-foods-best-start-foods-scotland-amendment-regulations-2024/ on 11 August 2023. The draft Regulations were accompanied by a full set of draft impact assessments, which were of great assistance in the scrutiny process. We were given a deadline for reporting of 27 September 2023.
Scottish Government officials helpfully provided a briefing on issues related to the draft Regulations at our Board meeting of 28 June 2023. This report reflects information they provided. We are grateful for the efforts made by officials to keep us appraised of developments.
SCoSS held a roundtable discussion of the draft Regulations with representatives from a number of stakeholder organisations on 16 August. We are grateful for the informative contributions which were made, which have informed this report in a number of respects. The discussion also included information and views relating to the wider context of how BSF is operating; we are grateful for these and will take them into account in future work relating to the issues raised.