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The Scottish Government received more than 300 applications for the core group but, unfortunately, none of these were from black or minority ethnic communities.

Despite this, we remain committed to ensuring that the perspectives of seldom heard and hard to reach groups, including people from BME communities, are strongly reflected in the social security charter. To that end, we are working with stakeholders to run targeted focus groups in September to seek detailed feedback on the work completed to date. We will then invite representatives from each of the groups who participate in these sessions to join the core group.

The Scottish Government does not track and quantify social prescribing, although a 2017 report for the Scottish Government by Voluntary Health Scotland found this approach underway in 31 of the 32 Scottish local authority areas.

Social Security Scotland is an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government. The Agency went live on 1 September 2018 and is currently accountable for payment of Carer’s Allowance in Scotland and payment of the Carer’s Allowance Supplement.

The budget for the Agency for the financial year 2018-19 is currently expected to be £207 million. The budget comprises three elements and covers the seven months from 1 September 2018 to 31 March 2019. The three elements of the budget are: Carer’s Allowance (£155.5 million), Carer’s Allowance Supplement (£34.9 million) and operational costs (£16.6 million). Significant elements of this budget will be demand led.

The final amounts to be allocated for Social Security Scotland for the 2018-19 financial year will be confirmed through the spring revision to the 2018-19 Scottish Budget.

Sections 3, 8 and 9 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 will be commenced later this autumn.

Social Security Scotland's Corporate Plan will be published shortly, as an interim document. As with everything it does, Social Security Scotland will develop and iterate its Corporate Plan in collaboration with stakeholder communities. Social Security Scotland's Corporate Plan will comprise one of three elements which will make up the Agency's tri-partite strategic planning and reporting regime. The other two parts will be the Agency's Annual Business Plan and Annual Report and Accounts, which will be published next year.

As Universal Credit is reserved to the UK Government, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) collects data on the Universal Credit Scottish choices on behalf of the Scottish Government. In line with good practice, the Scottish Government then carries out quality assurance on this data to minimise risk of error and ensure that it is suitable for publication.

The information published in January 2018 was initial management information, covering the period 11 November to 31 December 2017, to provide early indications of the take up of the Universal Credit Scottish choices. The Scottish Government will publish further management information covering the first six months of operation of the Universal Credit Scottish choices in October.

The qualifying date for the first payment of Carer’s Allowance Supplement is 16 April 2018.

The Scottish Government responded to the Social Security Advisory Committee consultation on the Universal Credit (Transitional Provisions) (Managed Migration) Amendment Regulations 2018, on 20 August 2018. A copy was also sent to the Social Security Committee.

The consultation closed at the end of April. Over 400 responses were received, and are now being analysed. The Scottish Government will publish a report summarising the findings in the autumn.

Social Security Scotland will put in place equality monitoring of its services, including for ethnicity, and will report on this as part of its performance statistics each year. This will be reviewed as set out in the Social Security Scotland Act (2018).