Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is implementing social security in a phased and controlled way to ensure safe and secure transition to the 1.4 million people who rely on this support. Our plans for delivery of the first wave of benefits and the establishment of the agency are on track and we have made good progress, as recognised by the recent Audit Scotland report.

The 13% increase through the Carers Allowance Supplement will be delivered this year and Best Start Grant and Funeral Expense Assistance by Summer 2019. We have started recruitment for the staff of our new agency Social Security Scotland, both at the headquarters in Dundee and locally.

This staged approach to implementation will continue for the delivery of the rest of the devolved benefits. Delivery dates for further benefits will be announced in due course.

The Scottish Government is implementing social security in a phased and controlled way to ensure safe and secure transition to the 1.4 million people who rely on this support. Our plans for delivery of the first wave of benefits and the establishment of the agency are on track and we have made good progress, as recognised by the recent Audit Scotland report.

The Social Security Programme Board have endorsed our approach to delivery and progress is discussed at all Board meetings. Delivery dates for further benefits will be announced in due course.

The Scottish Government is focussed solely on delivery of safe and secure payments to Scottish citizens when we take responsibility for payments of Carers Allowance Supplement via our existing system, Scottish Government Enterprise Accounting System (SEAS), in Autumn 2018 and re-use of DWP’s Central Payment System (CPS) for Best Start Grant payments in Summer 2019.

The incident on 26 March 2018 involved staff access issues with CPS within a specific Datacentre however full service was restored within the same working day. Consequently no payments were delayed as a result of the incident contrary to initial reports that suggested less than 250 British people living overseas may have had a payment delay of one day.

Given the limited scale of the issue and that the Scottish Government are not currently using the CPS, the Scottish Government did not request to be involved in the incident closure process. The CPS is a highly resilient system. However to ensure citizens are not impacted by any potential outage once CPS makes payments for the Scottish Government. We are working with the DWP to agree joint incident management processes, service continuity arrangements and sight of the forward schedule of change to ensure payments are made on time.

In line with regulation 5 of the Scotland Act 2016, responsibility for the existing debt associated with each of the benefits will transfer to the Scottish Government at the point at which executive competence for the benefit transfers. The responsibility for prosecuting offences in relation to all benefit claims in Scotland, whether the benefit is reserved or devolved, lies with the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.

This is an operational matter for NHS Lanarkshire.

This is a matter for the National Out of Hours Operations Group.

The Scottish Government does not use the services of external recruitment companies for vacancies at bands A-C bands - administrative through to management posts. These companies are however sometimes used at Senior Civil Service level.

In the last 5 years the Scottish Government has recruited six Senior Civil Servants to core SG Directorates and SG Agencies through the use of executive search by external recruitment companies. Of those one was recruited on a fixed term contract. The total value of their salaries on appointment was just over £608k.

One person at Senior Civil Service level has been engaged by a core Directorate through an employment agency under the Scottish Government’s Temporary and Interim Staff Services framework agreement. Costs are not being disclosed because this is regarded as personal information relating to an individual.

Tables have been supplied to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre which provide figures for Agency and temporary workers, salary costs broken down by Directorates and Agencies. Bib number 59782.

Tables have been supplied to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre which provide figures for staff in Directorates and Agencies broken down by salary costs. Bib number 59781.

The Scottish Government does not use the services of external recruitment companies for vacancies at Bands A-C - administrative through to management posts. At Senior Civil Service level, one advert was placed on an external recruitment company site in September 2017 and one person was employed as a result.

Limits on recruitment are not set centrally. Recruitment in individual business areas is determined by the need for particular skills to deliver required objectives and cost. The annual budgeting process, coupled with quarterly staffing returns requires business areas to assess business need and affordability of staffing requirements.