Welfare Reform Committee

Meeting date: Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Official Report 334KB pdf

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Subordinate Legislation

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Welfare Reform (Consequential Amendments) (Scotland) (No 2) Regulations 2013 [Draft]

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Education (Free School Lunches) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2013 (SSI 2013/64)

Item 3 is consideration of evidence from the Scottish Government on two pieces of subordinate legislation. We will take evidence on the instruments, both of which relate to passporting from universal credit, from Margaret Burgess, the Minister for Housing and Welfare, and her officials. Once we move to item 4, which is formal consideration of a motion on the affirmative instrument, only the minister and members of the committee will be able to participate.

I welcome Margaret Burgess and her officials, and invite the minister to introduce the topic. We will then have a discussion, if members want to ask questions.

Thank you, convener. These regulations are necessary in order to take account of the introduction of universal credit and are primarily focused on maintaining access to income-related passported benefits during the universal credit pathfinder period. We could have taken the risk that nobody on the universal credit pathfinder scheme would claim passported benefits in Scotland and not undertaken what could be seen now as a procedural exercise. However, I am sure you will agree that we have taken the correct approach in ensuring that no one in Scotland is disadvantaged by being unable to access our benefits while the UK Government rolls out its reforms.

As the committee knows, our intention is to bring forward new qualifying criteria for income-related passported benefits prior to the roll-out of universal credit in Scotland. For the avoidance of doubt, this intention also extends to revisiting the Education (Free School Lunches) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2013, which prescribe universal credit as a qualifying criterion for free school lunches. We will be working on the new criteria over the summer and I will ensure that the committee is kept up to date with developments. I am happy to take any questions prior to moving the motions.

Thank you, minister. When we have had discussions with the third sector about the way things are moving forward, there has been a repeated message about the need for a review and for the involvement of as wide a range of stakeholders as possible. The evidence shows that the dialogue about those who are affected by the changes has been on-going. Can you reiterate your commitment to continue that dialogue? Secondly, will you give us a commitment that there will be a review at some point so that the implementation of the regulations and their effect are regularly monitored?

The commitment to the stakeholders and the third sector that we gave at the very start will continue. We will have meetings in the summer to continue discussions with our stakeholders and that will continue throughout the process.

Your second point, which I have completely forgotten—

The review.

We intend to make regular reviews to see how the matter progresses and to monitor the impact. That will definitely take place.

That will reassure those who have an interest in the matter.

As there are no questions from members, we move to the debate on the motion. I have had no indication from members that they wish to debate the motion.

Motion moved,

That the Welfare Reform Committee recommends that the Welfare Reform (Consequential Amendments) (Scotland) (No.2) Regulations 2013 [draft] be approved.—[Margaret Burgess.]

Motion agreed to.

That completes the business. We will now consider our report on the instruments in private session.

11:35 Meeting continued in private until 11:36.