At its meeting on 12 May 2020, the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee considered the delegated powers provisions in the Social Security Administration and Tribunal Membership (Scotland) Bill ("the Bill") at Stage 1.

The Committee submits this report to the lead Committee for the Bill under Rule 9.6.2 of the Standing Orders.

The Scottish Government has provided the Parliament with a memorandum on the delegated powers provisions in the Bill.

This Scottish Government Bill was introduced on 27 April 2020 by the Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People (Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP). The lead Committee is the Social Security Committee.

The Scottish Parliament passed the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 (the “2018 Act”) following the conferral by the Scotland Act 2016 (the “2016 Act”) of legislative competence in respect of a number of social security benefits.

The requirement for this further Bill, as outlined in the Policy Memorandum, has arisen from the identification by the Government of a need to create statutory offences in primary legislation in relation to forms of assistance provided for under section 79 of the 2018 Act (i.e. exercising the power to top-up reserved benefits). The Bill also addresses a small number of other matters relating to social security administration and tribunal membership, which the Scottish Government considers need to be made in order to ensure the continued effective implementation of the 2018 Act. The Policy Memorandum adds that the Bill is bringing these proposed changes together so that the Scottish Parliament might scrutinise them in a single package of measures.

The Committee considered each of the delegated powers provisions in the Bill. The Committee determined that it did not need to draw the attention of the Parliament to the delegated powers provisions provided in the following sections of the Bill:

• Section 3(2) and (4) – Offences

• Section 4(2) – Assistance given in error: First-tier Tribunal’s jurisdiction

• Section 5(6) – Investigations

• Section 7(2) – Persons who can give diagnosis

• Section 9(5) – Consequential modifications in relation to Tribunal membership

• Section 10(1) – Ancillary provision

• Section 11(2) – Commencement