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Social Security Committee 08 February 2018

08 Feb 2018 · S5 · Social Security Committee

Item of business

Social Security (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Tomkins, Adam Con Glasgow Watch on SPTV

The Scottish social security system comprises three parts: the streams of assistance that are devolved in full, which include carers assistance and disability assistance; the power to top up any reserved benefit, which is provided for in section 45 of the bill; and the power to create new benefits within devolved competence. Those are the three parts of the package of devolved social security that was agreed in the Smith commission by all the parties represented in the Parliament, and which was legislated for in the Scotland Act 2016. The bill deals with the first and second parts of that package, but it says nothing about the third part of it. The amendments in my name in this group are designed to put that right. We all agree that the bill is a foundation piece of legislation and one of the most important that the Parliament will enact, because it puts on a Scottish statutory footing devolved Scottish social security. However, it does that with regard to only two thirds of the three-part package that was agreed unanimously around the Smith commission table. It is unfortunate that there is no provision in the bill to deal with the power to create new benefits. That is the purpose behind my amendments. I want to ensure that the bill puts on to the Scottish statute book all three elements of devolved social security: the benefits that are devolved in full, the power to top up reserved benefits and the power to create new benefits within devolved competence. Amendment 119 seeks to amend section 7, which defines what the Scottish social security system is. That matters because the principles in section 1 and the charter in section 2 will apply to the Scottish social security system. That definition should include all three parts of the package that I have described. Amendments 119 and 63, which are alternatives—we do not need both of them—seek to amend section 7 to ensure that any new benefits that are created under the power to create new benefits will fall within the scope of the statutory definition of the Scottish social security system and that, therefore, the principles in section 1 and the charter in section 2 will apply to the design and delivery of those benefits. The other amendments in the group seek to add to the bill the power to create new benefits, and they do so in a manner that is fully consistent with the way in which the Scottish ministers want to design and deliver the benefits that are fully devolved. That is to say that the regulation-making powers in those amendments are the same as the regulation-making powers that the Scottish Government sought to promote through the amendments that we have just discussed and come to a decision on. The regulations would have to be laid before the Scottish commission on social security for its advice and input; in other words, the process is entirely the same. The purpose behind my amendments is to ensure that the bill captures the whole of, and not just some of, devolved social security in Scotland, because at the moment it does not do that, which I think is a significant and—I would say—fundamental flaw in it. I move amendment 119. 10:15

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Social Security Committee 08 February 2018

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