Date received: 26 July 2021
Date responded: 23 August 2021

You asked for:

1. All the costs incurred to date by the Social Security Commission, ranging from the commission’s initiation to the present date with a full breakdown of those costs.
2. A full membership list for any members of commission between its initiation and the present date.
3. A list of all engagement (written correspondence, meetings and attendance at events) with Scottish Ministers and Cabinet Secretaries between its initiation and the present date.

SCoSS is able to provide some of the information you requested and where we could not we explain fully the reason for this.

1. Costs:

• 2018-19: The information you have requested is available in Scottish Government’s annual report and accounts. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you however the information you have requested is available via the hyperlink above.
• 2019-20: The information you have requested is available on SCoSS’s temporary webpage. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you however I have included a link to the document.
• 2020-21: The annual report and accounts for 2020-21 are currently being produced and, as these will be published within 12 weeks of your FOI request, under section 27(1) of FOISA, we consider it is reasonable to delay disclosing the information until the planned date of publication.
• Please be aware that this exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. This is because while the annual report and accounts are still in production, we would risk disclosing incorrect breakdowns of expenditure.
• 2021-22: We are able to disclose that from 1 April 2021 to 31 July 2021, SCoSS’s expenditure was £44,367.54. However we are unable to provide a breakdown of these figures as under section 38(1)(b) of FOISA, as this would risk disclosing employee personal data.
• Please be aware that this exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. This is because we consider it reasonable that employees’ personal data is not published.

2. Membership: All of the information you have requested is available from SCoSS’s temporary webpage. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. However, it is also helpful to note for your information, that the membership of the Commission has not changed since its initiation.

3. Engagement: Below is a list of the meetings and attendance at events that SCoSS has had with Scottish Ministers and Cabinet Secretaries from initiation to the date of your request:

Meetings:

• 1 May 2019 – Meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Social Security
• 6 February 2020 – Meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Social Security
• 12 November 2020 – Meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Social Security
• 21 June 2021 – Meeting with the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and the Minister for Social Security and Local Government

Events:

• 10 July 2019 – The Cabinet Secretary for Social Security attended a SCoSS Board meeting for one agenda item.

4. Correspondence

The majority of correspondence SCoSS had with Scottish Ministers and Cabinet Secretaries is available from the publications section of SCoSS’s temporary webpage. Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you.

Where correspondence has not been published I have included a list at Annex A. Some of the correspondence does not come under section 27(1) of FOISA as it is information intended for future publication however I have included it in the list at Annex A.

I trust this information is helpful in satisfying your request under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), in particular where we have been able to fully provide the information requested.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if there is any further clarification required on the information we have provided.