Recommendation 41

Andrew Latto, Deputy Director, Devolution, Pensioner Benefits and Carer’s Allowance Policy Group at the DWP told us told us that there are existing processes in place through which the DWP process data requests based on whether it exists, whether they are legally entitled to share it, and if it exists, whether they can operationally share it. 107 He told us that: the basic principle that our chief data officer operates under is that we are prepared to share the minimum viable dataset we hold on citizens who make claims. In the case of the Scottish Government, once the Scottish Government have verified the identity of the person that they are dealing with, then we are content to share the data, providing it is clearly relevant to the new benefit that is being delivered to them.108 100 Q157 101 Q156 102 Q156 103 Q149 104 Q156 105 Scottish Government, Carer’s Allowance Supplement, Accessed 7 May 2021 106 Department for Work and Pensions (WPS0021) 107 Q186 108 Q187 Welfare policy in Scotland 23