SCoSS Board Meeting

Date: 27 February 2025
Time: 14:00
Venue: Microsoft Teams

Minutes

Present—

  • Ed Pybus (Chair)
  • Dr Mark Simpson (Member)
  • Judith Paterson (Member)
  • Dr Marilyn Howard (Member)
  • Adam Bennett (Member)

Apologies: None

In attendance (SCoSS Secretariat)—

  • Stephen Herbert, Secretary
  • Andrew Strong, Head of Policy and Scrutiny
  • Christopher Galloway, Analysis and Participation Support Officer
  • Lisa Kinnear, Governance and Engagement Officer

In attendance for agenda item 7—

  • Nia Lewis, Cloud First Programme & SG Cloud Platform Service, Scottish Government Digital Directorate; and,
  • Kenneth McCalman, Domains Delivery Manager, Scottish Government Digital Directorate.

1. Welcome and declaration of interests

The Chair, Ed Pybus, welcomed the Commissioners to the second meeting of the Board in 2025.

Marilyn Howard declared that she is a former recipient of the DWP Winter Fuel Payment.

2. Draft minutes of the previous meeting

The draft Minutes of the January Board meeting were amended and agreed.

The Board also noted that an ad-hoc meeting of the Board was held on 18 February which considered the draft Carer’s Assistance regulations and draft Social Security (Cross-border Provision, Case Transfer and Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations.  The ad-hoc meeting of the Board also considered options for scrutinising forthcoming draft Pension Age Winter Heating Payment regulations.

3. Charter Scrutiny: Experiences of people with communication needs

Andrew Strong provided the Board with an update on the progress of the charter work. The Board also reviewed the Sub-Committee’s recent meeting with Social Security Scotland on 12 February.

The Board considered the latest version of the report, providing further comments and suggestions.  The Board noted that the Secretariat will incorporate the comments and changes ahead of final sign off of the report at the Charter Sub-Committee on 3 March.

The Board recorded its thanks to Andrew Strong and Chris Galloway for their work on the Charter report.

4. The draft Carer’s Assistance (Young Carer Grant and Carer Support Payment) (Miscellaneous Amendment and Saving Provision) (Scotland) Regulations 2025

The Board considered and agreed the report and recommendations. Andrew Strong provided the Board with an update on next steps and noted that the report will be laid in the Scottish Parliament on 28 February.

5. The Social Security (Cross-border Provision, Case Transfer and Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) Regulations 2025

Mark Simpson provided the Board with an update, as the Commissioner leading scrutiny of the draft regulations, on the scrutiny process. Andrew Strong noted that the Board are due to receive the ’Keeling Schedule’ and draft impact assessments in the coming weeks.

The board agreed to hold an Ad Hoc meeting on Tuesday 11 March to consider technical comments from stakeholders on the draft regulations.

6. Scottish Government response: The Social Security (Up-rating) (Miscellaneous Amendment) (Scotland) 2024 Regulations

The Board agreed to defer consideration of this agenda item to a future meeting.

7. Finance update

Scottish Government Digital Directorate officials, Nia Lewis and Kenneth McCalman, joined the meeting to discuss the process for the transition of the SCoSS website to Oracle Cloud. The officials updated the Board on the benefits of the transition and the costs associated with the transition of the website to Oracle Cloud which could total £20K in the 2024-25 financial year.  The officials also provided a timeline of when this work would be likely to be carried out.

Stephen Herbert provided the Board with an update on the current forecast expenditure, noting that the forecast is at a lower level of spend than that previously reported in September 2024. He also noted that the reduced level of forecast spend is primarily a consequence of lower than previously forecast Secretariat staffing costs as a result of the currently vacant B3 post within the Secretariat.

The Board noted the finance update and agreed to the costs, in the 2024-25 financial year, to enable the transition of the SCoSS website to Oracle Cloud.  The Board also agreed that a review of the SCoSS website should be undertaken.

8. Risk register

The risk register had been reviewed by the Secretariat and considered by the Audit Sub-Committee which proposed a new risk which related to the capacity of the Board and Secretariat Staff.

The Board agreed the revised risk register.

9. Business Plan

The Board considered a draft set of strategic objectives and priorities for the 2025-26 Business Plan. The Board provided comment on the draft strategic objectives and priorities and decided to agree a revised version of the business plan, including comments discussed at the meeting, via correspondence.

10. Board meeting dates

The Board agreed future Board meeting dates from August to December 2025.

11. Chair’s update

The Chair provided the Board with an update on his recent meetings since the last Board meeting.  These were—

  • Meeting with Audit Scotland officials to discuss the Audit Scotland review of Adult Disability Payment;
  • Meeting with Ian Davidson to discuss bringing external expertise into the work of the Board.

12. Any Other Business

No other business was discussed.

Meeting closed at 17:14

Date of next meeting: Thursday 27 March

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