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Pam Duncan-Glancy makes an important set of points, which we took seriously throughout the consideration of the process. In a moment, I will bring in Ruari Sutherland, who has had a lot of engagement with VoiceAbility in the lead-up to, and since, the award of the contract. Those are important considerations, which VoiceAbility has included in its service delivery elsewhere in the UK, and they are important considerations for the organisation now as it builds the service in Scotland.

Ruari, can you say more on that?

Thank you. I am grateful for the opportunity to join you to discuss the legislative consent memorandum and the associated legislative consent motion, which was lodged in the Scottish Parliament on 10 September. I am grateful for your swift consideration of the issue at short notice.

As you know, the UK Government has introduced legislation to suspend the triple-lock formula for calculating the amount by which state pensions and benefits that are linked to earnings should be uprated for the year 2022-23. The Social Security (Up-rating of Benefits) Bill was introduced on 8 September. It gives UK ministers powers to uprate pensions and benefits that are linked to earnings by 2.5 per cent, or in line with the increase in prices, instead of in line with annual earnings.

It also proposes to give equivalent powers to the Scottish ministers to uprate industrial death benefit in Scotland. The provision will affect about 300 recipients of industrial death benefit in Scotland. IDB is devolved, but is currently administered by the Department for Work and Pensions under an agency agreement. Industrial death benefit is paid to the spouse or dependent of someone who died as the result of an industrial accident or disease. It was abolished in 1988 for deaths occurring after 1988, and new claims were abolished in 2012.

We were informed of the decision by the UK Government only on 6 September. In light of the tight timescales that have been afforded to us, the need to protect the payments of the 300 IDB clients, and our overriding commitment to safe and secure delivery of Scottish disability benefits, we have considered carefully how to proceed.

I consider an LCM to be the right course of action to enable uprating of IDB, which is required under the terms of our agency agreement with the UK Government. If the agency agreement with DWP were to be terminated, we would have, in a short space of time, to make arrangements to administer IDB, which would be very challenging.

Because industrial death benefit can be paid only when it relates to a death that occurred before 1988, many of the 300 cases are more than 30 years old and are all held on paper files. If the Scottish Government were to decide to administer IDB according to the timescale, it would need to identify relevant Scottish cases and transfer them from clerical files to a new system, which would be time consuming and would require significant resource. To build, in effect, a new benefit, and to progress primary legislation on an expedited basis within the timescale, when the benefit delivery programme is already operating close to capacity, with child disability payment, adult disability payment and Scottish child payment roll-out all happening this year and next, would not be achievable.

Designing, building, procuring, securing the necessary agreements and collecting the required data for a new system would require significant time and resource. For context—this is important—the legislation to introduce the Scottish child payment took 17 months, and the carers allowance supplement took two years from announcement to delivery. Therefore, for practical and delivery reasons, on balance I consider an LCM to be the right course of action.

Moreover, the only alternative legal mechanism to a legislative consent motion would be to introduce equivalent Scottish primary legislation. We would need to have primary legislation in place before the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions concludes her review of benefit rates by mid-November, in order to ensure that the 300 recipients of the benefit would not fall out of payment. That would mean that scrutiny would have to take place under an emergency timetable with all stages of the bill happening in one day after the October recess. The agreement of the UK law officers, the Lord Advocate and the Secretary of State for Scotland to expedited royal procedures would be required so that the Bill could be similarly enacted by 26 November. Even if that were feasible, I would not consider it to be good use of parliamentary time.

Overall, co-operation in this instance is therefore necessary to maintain the agency agreement for IDB, and to protect the delivery of our existing programme. I emphasise that we continue to support maintaining of the triple lock, and that we oppose the decision to suspend it by the UK Government. It is a decision that we have no control over, and of which we had very little notice.

I should also say for clarification that the committee will have noted the letter from the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee, which has considered the LCM and deems it to be acceptable in the circumstances. The DPLR Committee has also identified a minor error in the memorandum, at paragraphs 4 and 8, which refer to the current bill creating a discretionary power to uprate, whereas the bill places a duty to uprate on the secretary of state and—in devolved areas—on the Scottish ministers. Letters to this and the DPLR Committee will be forthcoming to clarify the point.

Thank you, convener. I look forward to questions.

I thank Pam Duncan-Glancy for her support for the course of action, and for that important question.

You will be aware of the significant resource that has been invested in capacity building, structures, IT equipment and systems, and—of course—in the agency itself. There has been significant investment in staff, which is ongoing; the recruitment process continues at pace. Significant resources are going into Social Security Scotland.

I am not fully sighted on all the evidence that the committee heard this morning, due to having been on my way to the committee. I am, of course, aware of stakeholders’ various considerations in terms of what the wider social security programme looks like, and of what we are doing in the round.

The social security system is at a crucial point of delivery. Roll-out this year in the months ahead of the child disability payment will be a significant milestone, and the adult disability payment will come next year. We will undertake safe and secure transfer of existing cases as quickly, safely and securely as possible. We have to do that in a way that builds strong foundations for the system and—this is most important—delivers payments to people who are expecting them. We will need that capacity and strong foundation in the years ahead to ensure that we do not have a two-tier system in which some people in Scotland benefit more than others as a result of case transfer. There are all those considerations.

I feel that now is not the time to talk about disability benefits in the round, although I am sure that it is something that we will talk about collectively in the weeks ahead. The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government is coming to committee next week; I wonder whether the wider programme will be something that you wish to discuss with her.

In Social Security Scotland we are building an agile electronic system through which people can make paper-based applications if they wish. That is because we are committed to that through the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, in which there is the principle of inclusivity in order to ensure that people can apply in the way that is most suited to them. Such applications are appropriately processed into our wider IT infrastructure.

The 11 benefits that we are delivering, 7 of which are new, are electronically managed and organised. The paper-based cases are historical cases for which responsibility has been devolved under the Scotland Act 2016. We are administering them under an agency agreement for a number of reasons, among which are the practicalities that have been highlighted.

I will bring in officials in a minute. As I said in my opening remarks, the industrial death benefit was closed some time ago, which is why cases are in paper format.

Matthew Duff might want to say more.

No, because we are currently delivering that with the DWP under an agency agreement. The costs are to ensure that we have the appropriate staffing for a strong foundation, and so that we can deliver social security in Scotland proficiently through the period ahead, as we have done since 2018. We are on a trajectory to have similar costs to the DWP for administering social security. We are doing the work in an appropriately efficient and professional manner, as you would expect.

I do not think that the questions are fully relevant to the LCM, but I will be happy to follow up on that with Mr Briggs and the committee afterwards. I am aware that there has been correspondence or parliamentary questions on the matter from Mr Briggs.

The estimates have increased, but the delivery of social security in Scotland on the trajectory that we are on at the moment means that spend on the delivery of social security will be similar to that of the DWP.

Remember that we are recruiting staff to deliver benefits, as the people of Scotland asked for in elections, and which we committed to as parties through the 2018 act. We are creating good employment opportunities and wider macroeconomic benefits. There is significant benefit—from a client’s perspective and from the wider perspective of the communities of Scotland—from what we are doing in social security .

I noted with interest the differing opinions on the first panel on that issue. That is a point of consideration for our future benefit of Scottish carers assistance, but at the moment we need to stay focused on the window for the December payment and the fact that the carers allowance supplement is the only feasible mechanism that we have that does not risk the on-going delivery and consideration of the live benefits that we currently deliver and the roll-out of new benefits.

The issue that Evelyn Tweed raises is a point of consideration, but at the moment we are very focused on delivering the December payment.

Absolutely. We will consider it, and I look forward to doing so with the committee.

We committed to the carers allowance supplement in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, so that is guaranteed every year and has been since 2018, when it was the first devolved benefit to be introduced. The additional amount, which we paid in 2020 and are seeking, through the bill, to pay again in December in the budgetary year 2021-22, will be guaranteed if the bill is passed.

We are creating the enabling power for that to be able to happen next year, should that be the will of the Parliament, but I do not think that it is prudent or correct, at this point, to set a position for future years. Of course, we will introduce Scottish carers assistance. Collectively, we will make decisions on what that will include and how it will be set.

We are creating an enabling power that will mean that, should there be a requirement and a desire from the Parliament to make a payment again in the next financial year, we have the mechanism to enable us to do that. There will, of course, be questions around resource and adequacy in our collective considerations around Scottish carers assistance.

Our analysis is based on our ability to deliver a payment and on the feedback that we had on the difference that it made last year, as well as on our engagement with stakeholders and carers organisations. We were told how much of an impact the payment made during the pandemic.

I appreciate the wider concerns about carers assistance and the level of provision for carers more generally. That is an important question for all of us as we work towards the introduction of Scottish carers assistance. However, we can feasibly deliver the supplement, both in practical terms through the mechanisms of Social Security Scotland, and within the budget that has already been set for this financial year. We have secured the resource that is necessary to make the payment.

I know that there are pressures on carers and family budgets. That is why the Government is taking a range of measures and actions to assist communities and families across Scotland with those pressures. The proposed payment is an important further contribution to support carers at this time, but I appreciate that some people will still face pressures on their finances. We are very aware of that.