Chamber and committees

A meeting between the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland and the Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People is scheduled to take place on 28 August 2018.

Experience Panels do not have a hypothecated budget from the overall Social Security budget, it is contained within the overall allocated budget for the Social Security agency and implementation of benefits.

The total spend from 3 March 2017 when recruitment to the panels opened to date is £291,149. This consists of:

In the period 1 January 2017 to 30 April 2018, 1367 people applied for vacancies in the Social Security Agency, 384 were interviewed and 41 were successful at interview.

Those successful candidates are either now in post or are awaiting appointment.

Tables have been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib number 59809) which provide figures for the number of people who applied, were interviewed and were appointed to the social security agency broken down by protected characteristic.

This relates to the period 1 January 2017 to 30 April 2018.

The Scottish Government does not request information from applicants regarding their carer status. We therefore have no figures on this.

A debt management service will be in place within Social Security Scotland when it is established.

Chapters 5 and 6 of Part 2 of the Act are only relevant to the assistance listed in Chapter 2 of that Part and Part 3. Once a decision has been taken to commence the relevant sections Parliament will be advised by the laying of commencement regulations.

a) Around 450 Experience panel members have responded to communications inviting people to participate in the service design for individual benefits. This includes expressing an interest in or attending a meeting, completing a survey or responding by phone.

This figure does not include communications with individual panel members on a one to one basis by email and phone, and does not include communications relating to the design of cross-cutting components for the new agency, such as the branding and website.

b) 193 panel members have attended sessions on the service design for individual benefits. Some of these individuals have attended multiple sessions.

The Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 received Royal Assent on 1 June 2018. We will be reviewing and updating the privacy impact assessment, now known as a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) under the General Date Protection Regulations, accordingly. The DPIA will be published once the review is completed.

As of 14 June 2018 we have received 132 expense claims from Experience Panel members. All have been processed and reimbursed.

As far as possible we limit upfront costs for panel members by booking taxis for them where possible, meeting locally, providing options for participating by telephone, and by providing refreshments and lunch for face-to-face events.