Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government Legal Directorate has not incurred any legal cost other than in house staffing cost in relation to social security.

The Scottish Government did not hold any employability contracts with Working Links (Employment) Limited. Working Links did hold shares in Start Scotland Limited which delivers two Fair Start Scotland contracts. The selling of these shares to Fedcap Rehabilitation Services was a matter for Start Scotland Limited and the appointed administrator and not the Scottish Government.

At no stage have Start Scotland Limited stopped administering their Fair Start Scotland contract, which they continue to do.

The breakdown of the legal fees incurred by the Social Security Directorate is as follows:

Formally released data at the quarter ended‎ 31 December 2018 is already available. The staffing statistics are published by Office for National Statistics (ONS) here:https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/
publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable

At that date, there were 13 temporary staff employed by Social Security Scotland.

Taking a ‘session’ to be any face to face interaction including each day of focus groups, co design sessions or dissemination events, and each individual interview or testing session, the average number of participants at a session is 6.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-21923 on 13 March 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 total spend on expenses for Experience Panel members from 3 March 2017 when recruitment to the panels opened to date is £18,357.28.

Social Security Scotland staff are on Scottish Government Terms & Conditions and part of Scottish Government main. The Scottish Government recognises the importance of supporting lower paid staff within the public sector and the Public Sector Pay Policy continues our commitment to meeting the requirements of the new real Living Wage rate.

Social Security Scotland have their headquarters in Dundee with a secondary site in Glasgow. The Agency is based in interim accommodation at Dundee House where they co-locate with Dundee City Council. In Glasgow the current interim accommodation is at the Glasgow City Council’s building at 220 High Street. All staff working for Social Security Scotland receive the Living Wage rate in line with Scottish Government’s Public Sector Pay Policy. It is not possible to comment on staff employed by for other organisations in Dundee House and 220 High Street.

Severe Disablement Allowance (SDA) will be delivered by the DWP under an agency agreement from April 2020. Discussions with DWP in relation to the delivery costs for SDA under the agency agreement are on-going.