I will keep my comments brief so that we can have a wide discussion. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to come in front of the committee. Since my last appearance at the committee, a lot has happened regarding the welfare powers that are to be transferred to the Scottish Parliament.
I say at the outset—I emphasised this the last time I was here—that we are about to begin a consultation process on what we should do with the new powers and how they fit in with our existing powers. I am keen to ensure that the committee is a key participant in the consultation and that we work together on that. If we can get a consensus in the Parliament on the way forward once the powers are transferred and on how they fit in with our existing powers, that will beneficial, not least to the people who are reliant on the benefits in question for their wellbeing and their standard of living.
As we are all aware, there are real challenges ahead in taking forward the powers that the Smith commission proposed that we get. There are also challenges associated with austerity and dealing with the consequences of the United Kingdom Government’s welfare reforms. In particular, there is an emergency budget scheduled for 8 July, when the detail of at least some of the £12 billion of additional reductions in the welfare budget that the UK Government is proposing to make and the impact that there will be on the powers that are to be transferred to the Scottish Parliament will become clear. We do not know the details of those cuts, because we have not been consulted on that. I hope that we will be consulted, but I suspect that that will not be the case. We are particularly concerned about the impact of the cuts on women, children and people with a disability. Those are the three categories of people whom we believe have been particularly adversely affected by the reforms up until now. We will be interested to hear what the committee has to say about the additional reforms/cuts and what impact they will have.
As you know, recent research by Inclusion Scotland and the Scottish Government shows the real fears that people have about welfare reform. Last week, I wrote to the UK Government to set out our concerns about the £12 billion cuts and the future of the joint ministerial committee on the transfer of welfare powers. I am happy to update the committee on progress on those matters.
Prior to the general election, a couple of meetings were held with the UK Government to discuss the transfer of the powers, but progress has been a bit slow since the general election. I have a conversation with the Secretary of State for Scotland planned for this afternoon, in which we will try to agree to reconvene the joint ministerial committee on the transfer of powers. There has been a change of personnel in the UK Government. The secretary of state was the minister of state but I believe that he will continue to co-chair the committee with me. However, there have been changes in personnel at the Department for Work and Pensions and the Treasury, so who will represent the UK Government needs to be sorted out. I hope that the joint ministerial committee will reconvene fairly soon after that and get on with the job.
Since the general election, the Prime Minister and the secretary of state have both said that the Scotland Bill will implement the Smith commission recommendations in full. However, we believe that the Scotland Bill, which was published on 28 May, falls short in a number of key areas. Apart from modest changes to the welfare provisions, the policy that is reflected in the bill is pretty much identical to that which was published in January. However, the unanimous report of the Scottish Parliament’s Devolution (Further Powers) Committee concluded that, in some critical areas, the UK Government’s draft clauses fell short of the Smith recommendations.
It is extremely disappointing that so little progress has been made in the four months since the draft clauses were published, despite a range of constructive suggestions having been made and despite engagement by the Scottish Government. We have drafted and shared with the UK Government a full set of alternative clauses on welfare, which would have implemented the relevant Smith commission recommendations, but those have not been included in the Scotland Bill. The Scottish Government will continue to press the UK Government to amend the bill to ensure that it reflects the substance and spirit of the all-party Smith commission.
Our greatest priority at the moment is to ensure that people have the opportunity to have their say on the new social security powers—as we prefer to call them. I value the work that is being taken forward by several organisations, including the Welfare Reform Committee and non-governmental organisations, in relation to that. We can discuss the consultation process either here or offline to ensure that we are being inclusive and that the committee is satisfied that we are including all the key stakeholders, particularly those who are or could be recipients of benefits. How those people are affected matters more than anything else.
A lot of work is going on behind the scenes to prepare for the new powers. Scottish Government officials have met a range of people and organisations from the UK Government in devolved areas and in the wider field, but much more remains to be done. However, I hope that, by the end of the year, we will have a much clearer picture of what we want to do with those powers—I hope that there will be consensus on that—not just in isolation but in the context of all the powers that the Scottish Government will then have in relation to social security, to maximise the impact of those powers and their budgets to benefit the people that we are here to serve.