Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002 Amendment Order 2015 [Draft]
Good morning and welcome to the 21st meeting in 2015 of the Health and Sport Committee. As I usually do at this point, I ask people to switch off mobile phones and other electronic devices, as they can interfere with the sound system. As you can see, many people around the table are using tablet devices instead of hard copies of our papers.
Agenda item 1 is subordinate legislation. The committee will consider an affirmative instrument. As usual with such instruments, we will have an evidence-taking session with the minister and his officials. Once all our questions have been answered, we will have a formal debate on the motion. The instrument that is before us is the draft Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002 Amendment Order 2015.
I welcome to the committee the Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health, Jamie Hepburn; Susie Braham, who is head of independent living fund Scotland implementation in the care, support and rights division of the Scottish Government; and Victoria MacDonald, who is senior principal legal officer in the directorate for legal services in the Scottish Government.
I believe that the minister wishes to make a brief opening statement.
Indeed, convener. I shall be very brief.
As members are undoubtedly aware, the United Kingdom Government is closing the independent living fund on 30 June 2015. The fund is already closed to new applicants and has been for some time—since 2010. In Scotland, we have announced our commitment to a new national Scottish ILF to safeguard the interests of the 2,831 existing Scottish users and to ensure the fund’s long-term future. We have also announced our commitment to open the fund to new users for the first time since 2010, with funding of £5 million for 2015-16 being made available to do that.
The ILF provides discretionary cash payments to disabled people to enable them to purchase care or support from an agency or to pay the wages of a privately employed personal assistant. Payments offer people the flexibility that they may not otherwise have to live in their own home, to take up employment or education, or to socialise like other members of society.
We have established a new organisation—ILF Scotland—to administer ILF awards. It will be fully operational by 1 July 2015 and all existing Scottish ILF users will transfer to it from that date.
The purpose of the order in council is to add ILF Scotland to the jurisdiction of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman. That will allow complaints about ILF Scotland to be dealt with by the ombudsman and will help to ensure an effective and robust complaints-handling procedure. The policy is that, once the internal ILF Scotland complaints-handling processes have been exhausted, a complainant should have the right to an external tier of redress via the ombudsman, as is already the case for many public bodies across Scotland. The ability to complain to an independent ombudsman is an important right. The order will ensure that ILF Scotland operates in line with similar service providers in Scotland.
I am happy to answer any questions that members may have.
Thank you, minister. Do members have any questions?
I have a very quick question. There is a period of time—it is a matter of days—in which the scheme will not be covered. What will happen if an issue arises then? I assume that, given the short time period, there would be the opportunity to take up the complaint after that.
Yes, you are right. That period of time will be very short. The order should go before the Privy Council on 15 July and come into effect immediately thereafter, so we are talking about a period of two weeks.
We can only estimate the number of complaints that there will be, of course, as we never know how many people will ultimately complain. Ideally, we would like no one to complain, but people should have the right to do so. We estimate that only around three complaints could end up with the ombudsman in any given year in the first instance. The likelihood of there being any complaints in that intervening period is pretty low, but nonetheless it is a possibility.
During the interim period, if complaints arise where there could be the need for external redress, they would be dealt with by the sole director of ILF Scotland, who is the deputy director of care, support and rights in the Scottish Government. That role is consistent with the other interim responsibilities of the sole director, who is carrying out the role until the new ILF Scotland chair and board of directors are appointed.
We have an interim measure, but the likelihood of its being utilised is pretty low. Those may be famous last words, of course.
Members have nothing further to say, so I do not expect that the minister will want to say any more.
Not particularly, convener—not unless you are desperate for me to do so.
Agenda item 2 is the formal debate on the affirmative instrument. I invite the minister to move the motion.
Motion moved,
That the Health and Sport Committee recommends that the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Act 2002 Amendment Order 2015 [draft] be approved.—[Jamie Hepburn.]
As no members want to contribute, I do not expect that the minister will want to sum up, given the absence of debate.
You are correct, convener.
Motion agreed to.
I thank the officials for attending. I suspend the meeting to allow a changeover of officials.
09:06 Meeting suspended.Previous
Attendance