Letter from the Minister for Parliamentary Business to the Convener, 19 January 2022
Dear Stuart,
Thank you for your letter of 21 December requesting information relating to two items
discussed by the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee at your meetings held on 14 December 2021 and 21 December 2021. I will respond to each in turn:
In respect of the first instrument, the Scottish Child Payment Regulations 2020 and the Disability Assistance for Children and Young People (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2022 (SSI 2021/draft), Scottish Government officials are taking steps to ensure that the requirements under section 97 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 will be met. Officials intend future social security instruments to be laid correctly so are producing guidance with more robust procedures to ensure all the reporting and laying requirements are met.
In respect of the second instrument, the Public Health (Coronavirus) (International Travel and Operator Liability) (Scotland) Amendment (No. 13) Regulations 2021 (SSI
2021/470), we thank the Committee for noting the mitigations in this case, and we note the concerns of the Committee about the avoidable error and the difficulty this might cause for the general reader.
As the Committee recognises, a very significant effort is being made across the Scottish Government to respond to Covid in real time. This issue resulted from the speed with which the necessary measures in this instrument had to be put in place in a matter of hours in coordination with the UK Government, against the backdrop of a fast-developing position on Omicron. Unfortunately, there was an oversight in the naming of the SSI. We have reminded lawyers about the importance of the usual drafting practice in the title in SSIs.
I hope that this response has been helpful.
Kind regards
George Adam