Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2015 (SSI 2015/46)
Item 2 is consideration of the Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2015. The regulations are subject to the negative resolution procedure and will come into force on 1 April 2015. They make further amendments to the Council Tax Reduction (State Pension Credit) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 and the Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Regulations 2012.
Before us are two Scottish Government officials: Jenny Brough, team leader in the local government finance and local taxation unit, and Colin Brown, senior principal legal officer. Jenny, will you give us a brief introduction to the regulations and what they set out to do?
Yes, of course. Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee.
The purpose of the amendment regulations is to make a number of changes to the provisions of the council tax reduction scheme for 2015-16. Some are routine amendments that are made every year—for example, to apply the United Kingdom Government’s annual uprating of social security benefits. Others are minor corrections to the provisions of the scheme’s regulations, which were laid in 2012.
There are also some amendments to reflect evolving policy positions in Scotland, such as the introduction of same-sex marriage, which requires the updating of references in the regulations. Finally, there are some amendments to the provisions for the council tax reduction review panel, which was set up in 2013 to review council tax reduction decisions.
Essentially, there are a number of different types of amendment in the regulations, all of which have been designed to prepare the council tax reduction scheme for 2015-16.
Does anyone have any questions?
Will you clarify something for me? Paragraph 6 of our briefing paper mentions an amendment made to the council tax reduction scheme in relation to
“extending the classes of person who do not need to be habitually resident in the United Kingdom in order to be able to qualify for a Council Tax Reduction”.
I could not find anything in the paper that you have provided that explains what the changes are. Will you explain them?
Yes, of course. Elements from the council tax benefit regulations were adapted to create the council tax reduction scheme, and some provided an interface between the social security system as it was at the time and the treatment of home affairs provisions such as those on persons who are, or are not, entitled to publicly funded support. A good example would be that persons who are subject to immigration control are not entitled to certain forms of publicly funded support.
As far as we could, we sought to replicate those provisions within the council tax reduction scheme for those who would be described as persons who are not considered to be habitually resident in Great Britain, who are therefore not entitled to council tax reduction. In this case, however, there were one or two examples that we were not aware of, such as persons who are supported by the destitution domestic violence concession.
As part of the policy intention to replicate the entitlement that would have existed under council tax benefit, those persons should be included in the scheme as persons who can be entitled to support. That is a good example of our not being aware of a particular provision that we should have made. We have now reflected in the scheme that the restrictions do not apply to that category of person. People who are supported by the destitution domestic violence concession can be entitled to CTR.
Thank you for that.
As there is nothing else that we need to do with the regulations, I think that the committee will agree to note them. I thank Jenny Brough and Colin Brown for appearing before us.
10:05 Meeting suspended.