Chamber and committees

Table 1. Cost of overtime claims for permanent staff in programme management and delivery division.

We are learning from our experience of operating the first Agency Agreement with DWP. Following Social Security Scotland’s first annual audit, officials are holding discussions with their counterparts in DWP, on various matters pertaining to audit and assurance. These discussions are on going and have been positive and helpful.

We publish the following information on staff salaries in the Scottish Government, which includes the Social Security Directorate:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-sector-pay-policy-staff-pay-remits-2019-20-technical-guide/pages/9/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-19-00145/

https://www.gov.scot/policies/public-sector-pay/pay-transparency/

And we publish the following information on our staff numbers:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/workforce-information/

Regarding the salaries for contingent workers, we refer you to the PQ responses in the following links:

S5W-25516 – https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&ReferenceNumbers=S5W-25516&ResultsPerPage=10

S5W-25345 – https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&ReferenceNumbers=S5W-25345&ResultsPerPage=10

We do not hold a central record of the number of IR35 assessments undertaken. Assessments are conducted on a case by case basis by individual business areas.

All suppliers contracted to provide interim and contingent labour are required to provide monthly reports detailing the workers assigned and the associated rates charged.

Contingent workers are not employed directly by Scottish Government and do not have records on an SG payroll. Information on contingent workers employed by agencies and engaged in Scottish Government Core is published in our Official Statistics publication which can be found here. https://www.gov.scot/publications/workforce-information/ 

Workers in scope for IR35 are an exception to the above as regards payroll. They are counted as contingent workers and are not employed directly by SG. They have a contract for provision of services not a contract of employment but do have a payroll record. Payroll is used to deduct the necessary PAYE tax and National Insurance contributions from the payment for services provided. It does not infer any employment relationship.

Since 2017, 4 workers hired directly have been found to be in scope and we are making appropriate tax and NI deductions.

Information on tax-domicile and residency status of interim and contingent workers provided through third parties would be more appropriately collected by the supplier. We have no information on this.

For those hired directly we collect the information required on domicile and residency to ensure correct tax and NI deductions and payments.

The Agency Agreement sets out the principles for audit and refers to the jointly agreed document; Scottish Devolution: A Framework for Audit and Accountability which was published on 8 March 2019. Social Security Scotland worked closely with Audit Scotland during the course of their audit however is unable to comment on the work undertaken by them.

Exhibit 2 correctly states that eligible families with children under 16 will receive their payments by the end of 2022, which reflects the timeline announced by the First Minister for the Scottish Government in its Programme for Government 2019-2020. The document referred to is not produced by Scottish Government or Social Security Scotland and any questions regarding its editing should be put to Audit Scotland.

The Social Security Directorate, along with the wider Scottish Government, publishes contract awards for contingent works at www.publiccontractscotland.gov.uk , including award value, duration and numbers of workers.

We are unable to provide more detailed information on full-time equivalent and day-rate salaries due to commercial sensitivities and for reasons of protecting personal information.