Date: 31 May 2023
Time: 13:30
Venue: Microsoft Teams

Present—

• Judith Paterson (Acting Co-Chair)
• Dr Mark Simpson (Acting Co-Chair)
• Marilyn Howard (Member)

Apologies: None

In Attendance (SCoSS Secretariat)—

• Stephen Herbert, Secretary
• Andrew Strong, Head of Policy and Scrutiny
• Andrzej Hagger, Analysis and Participation Officer
• Christopher Galloway, Analysis and Participation Support Officer
• Dorothy Warren, Governance and Engagement Officer
• Lisa Kinnear, Service Support Administrator

The Acting Co-Chair, Mark Simpson, welcomed the Board to the meeting.  Members did not have any relevant interests to declare.

The Minutes of the May Board meeting, subject to some minor amendments, were agreed.

In attendance—

• Kyle Murray, Procedural and International Policy Team Leader, Social Security Policy
• Johanna MacIsaac, Senior Policy Officer, Procedural and International Policy, Social Security Policy.

The Board discussed the scope and content of the regulations which had come into effect on 17 May.  In particular, there was discussion of the extent to which the regulations differed from previous regulations of a similar nature, relating to Afghanistan and Ukraine, where SCoSS had undertaken retrospective scrutiny.

The Board considered a draft report and agreed to hold an ad-hoc meeting on 6 June to consider a further draft.

The Board considered and agreed a minor amendment to the Business Plan proposed by the Scottish Government Sponsor Unit.

The Board noted the financial position and fraud and error update provided.

The Board noted that the budget allocation letter had not yet been received and agreed to consider the letter once received.

The Board considered the content of discussion earlier in the meeting, under agenda item three, and agreed the approach to scrutiny of the regulations discussed.

No further business was discussed.

Meeting closed at – 16:58

Date of Next Meeting: Thursday 29 June