Chamber and committees

The Social Security Experience Panels provided extensive input into the Disability Benefits Discovery work, particularly in relation to their experiences of the current system of assessments. This work has influenced the development of the contract, although they were not directly involved in the development of the Service Design contract or Prior Information Notice.

The intended outcome is that the event will generate competition for the tender process and that any feedback received will be considered when refining the requirements prior to commencing a tender exercise.

Our new social security system is being designed with people, not for them.

We are carrying out ongoing user research and we have also conducted research through our Experience Panel of people with lived experience of social security. A report on this research will be published in November 2018.

Social Security Scotland internal guidance on language is taking account of the emerging findings. This includes the use of the word ‘benefit’, which people have told us is the most widely and easily understood term for a form of social security assistance.

We are carrying out ongoing user research and we have also conducted research through our Experience Panel of people with lived experience of social security. A report on this research will be published in November 2018.

Both the Social Security Directorate and Social Security Scotland internal guidance on language is taking account of the emerging findings. These findings include feedback that ‘benefits’ is the most widely and easily understood term for a form of social security assistance and the word ‘client’ is the preferred word for someone in receipt of a benefit.

The Social Security Directorate spent £5.2 million in 2017-18 and has spent £9.6 million to date in 2018-19 on goods and services from the private sector.

Social Security Scotland was formally established as an executive agency of the Scottish Government on 1 September 2018. It has not yet made any payments to private sector suppliers for goods and services but expects to do so in 2018-19.

The Social Security Directorate and Social Security Scotland utilise a range of private sector suppliers. The Scottish Government regularly publishes the detail of all expenditure over £25,000, this includes details of the nature of the expenditure and the supplier for the Social Security Directorate. Social Security Scotland will also publish reports to provide transparency of expenditure over £25,000.

Scottish Government has published 2161 notices since 2015-16. The breakdown for each calendar year is as follows: 2015: 477; 2016: 511; 2017: 615; 2018: 558. Of this number we are aware of 3 notices being subject to NDA. We are also aware of a further 6 procurement exercises which used an NDA although there was no requirement for a contract notice in these instances. Complete data on the use of NDA across Scottish Government is not centrally held and confirmation of the actual number could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Where words are used without further definition in legislation, they take their natural meaning in each context in which they are used. It is for the courts to interpret them if necessary, not the Scottish Government.

The information requested has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 60057).

The Scottish Government assumed executive competence for Carer's Allowance, and associated debt, on 3 September 2018. As Carers Allowance will continued to be delivered by DWP under an agency agreement, the recovery of this debt is subject to existing rules.

The administration of CTR is the responsibility of local authorities we do not collect data on how many households who were eligible under the Council Tax Reduction (CTR) scheme applied to their local authority for a reduction, so do not hold this information.