Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-20880 on 24 January 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Citizens Advice Scotland will calculate the financial gain as the amount of any lump sum or the sum of any payments into the household, or reductions in payments out of the household, up to a maximum of 12 months.

The target set for the service is to deliver a Financial Health Check to 15,000 households in Scotland per annum. We will monitor the quarterly update reports provided by Citizens Advice Scotland to gauge whether the service is successful. Our decision will be based on the data submitted for the following agreed key performance indicators:

Number of clients accessing the service

Profile of clients

Client financial gain

Client satisfaction

Client financial confidence

Improved mental health as a result of the check.

It is not standard Scottish Government policy practice to publish grant funding applications and grant offer letters given that information contained in these documents may be commercially sensitive.

The service was not procured. It is grant funded.

A Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 request is currently being considered by the Senior Responsible Owner.

The reviews are confidential to the Senior Responsible Owner.

Any request for copies of the review are directed to the Senior Responsible Owner.

Programme Board Dashboards are part of routine reporting, and as such any RAG statuses are provided for internal discussion and not made public, on the grounds that doing so would inhibit substantially the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation. The Programme Director’s Update is used to enable critical discussion that in turn supports the delivery of social security for Scotland.

Practical implementation would be the use of DWP Verify Earnings and Pensions service in the delivery of a devolved benefit. I refer the member to the answer to questions S5W-20346 and S5W-20857 on 17 January 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

The original PQ referred to where Police Scotland would act as a Delivery Partner. We have no definition of a Delivery Partner.

However we have been clear that we anticipate that the Counter Fraud function within the Agency will participate in formal intelligence sharing networks (other participants include Police Scotland, HMRC, DWP and many other government departments) and/or collaborative investigations where appropriate. This position is reflected in the Counter Fraud Strategy published September 2018.

Social Security Scotland’s Counter Fraud team are a Specialist Reporting Agency. This means the agency has civilian investigation officers able to investigate allegations relating to the benefit offences introduced by the Social Security Act 2018 to criminal investigation standard, including direct submission of crime reports to the Crown Office for consideration of prosecution action. Police Scotland have the remit to investigate and report alleged criminal activity of any kind, which could include these offences, however should they decide to undertake such an investigation it would not constitute a service provision arrangement.