Chamber and committees

As explained in my letter to the Social Security Committee, we expect advocacy services to be in place for Summer 2020, when we commence delivery of Disability Assistance for Children and Young People.

Information on what the (a) annual and (b) total cumulative loss of benefit is for people who have already been migrated from DLA to PIP is held by the Department for Work and Pensions, not the Scottish Government.

Information on how many people on PIP have been migrated under the current arrangements in each year since the migration began is held by Department for Work and Pensions, not the Scottish Government.

Information on how many people who receive DLA will now have their migration suspended has been requested from the Department for Work and Pensions.

DWP will cease the managed migration of working age people receiving DLA to PIP from 1 April 2020, when Scottish Ministers take executive competence for the remaining devolved benefits.

The date when working age DLA clients will be transferred to Social Security Scotland has not been agreed. The Scottish Government are working with the Department for Work and Pensions to understand DWP’s forecasts for the remaining working age DLA clients, and thereby develop options for the safe and secure transfer of these clients.

Scottish Government publish their contract award notices on Public Contracts Scotland, supporting the principles of transparency and openness. This applies to regulated procurements (£50,000 goods/services and £2 million works). Details can be found here Public Contracts Scotland .

There is no requirement to publish contract award notices for un-regulated procurements, where the value is under £50,000 goods/services or under £2 million works, or call-off contracts from Frameworks.

Only one procurement exercise for the programme has been terminated. This was for Disability Benefits Assessments Service Design with an estimated value of £8m.

I will update Parliament on our position on social security in due course. In the meantime, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-24018 on 26 June 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

We are working closely with Audit Scotland on the Annual Report and Accounts audit process. That process remains on schedule to table the first set of Accounts for Social Security Scotland in line with our legislative requirements.

The Carers Strategic Policy Statement will be a high-level document setting out the Scottish Government’s approach and policies for carer support across a range of Ministerial portfolios. As such, it is not intended to announce or form the basis for new policy. We expect the document to be helpful for those working at local and national level to inform strategic planning and policy development.

To develop the draft document, we have undertaken extensive engagement with partners. Feedback about the purpose and value of such a document has been positive.

To allow time to properly address the helpful feedback from this extended engagement, we now plan to publically consult on the draft document this autumn. We are also planning a stakeholder event in October to allow those with an interest in the document to find out more and provide feedback.

We expect to publish the final Carers Strategic Policy Statement in spring 2020, subject to feedback from the consultation.

Social Security Scotland has grown in scale since its launch in September 2018. It currently employs around 400 staff - mainly across its Dundee head office and second Glasgow site. Once fully operational, that will grow further to in excess of 1,900 people. The staffing and structure will continue to grow and change as new functions, local face-to-face delivery and further devolved benefits are launched.

Table 1 shows the number of individuals who have self-selected the disability category as of 31 December 2018. It is necessary to take caution when interpreting these figures, as this question is not mandatory. Therefore, it may not give an accurate picture of the true number of disabled people that are employed by Scottish Government or its agencies. For example, Social Security Scotland, was established around three months before this snapshot was taken.

Furthermore, primary suppression has been applied to columns where only 1-4 individuals have self-identified as disabled. In order to prevent the disclosure of these figures by process of elimination, secondary suppression has been applied to columns which may have considerably more than four individuals self-identifying as disabled.

The Scottish Government will publish a Recruitment and Retention Plan this year. The plan will reiterate our commitment to our disabled employees, and outline the action SG will take to ensure that they are supported to progress within the workplace and that we become an employer of choice for disabled people in Scotland.

The Scottish Fiscal Commission provides independent and official forecasts of all devolved social security expenditure, to inform the Scottish Budget. This will include the Scottish Child Payment. We have made the Commission aware of the Scottish Child Payment and provided our initial assessment of its expected costs and impacts.

Finances for the Scottish Child Payment will be set out in full in the Scottish Budget later this year. The Scottish Fiscal Commission will provide independent forecasts of expenditure in line with their statutory duties.