Select committee: Scottish Affairs Committee
Recommendation 50
Second Report - Welfare policy in Scotland
Published 23 Jun 2021
Addressed to Scotland Office
Scottish Affairs Committee Welfare policy in Scotland All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We note that while intergovernmental relations on the devolution of welfare appear to be working well, the evidence received by the Committee highlights that there are operational issues around data sharing that need to be resolved to the satisfaction of both governments. We note that there is an expectation that the DWP would prioritise and look for all ways to expedite the sharing of data it does hold. However, we also note that the Scottish Government cannot reasonably expect the DWP to share data they do not hold or that would breach their data protection obligations. 118 Q185 119 Q185 120 Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (WPS0017) 121 Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (WPS0017) 122 Q181 123 Q181 Welfare policy in Scotland 25
From: Scottish Affairs Committee, Second Report - Welfare policy in Scotland (HC 55), 23 June 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 19 November 2021 (deadline 23 August 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The UK Government "notes the Committee's recommendations" and responds to each in turn, accepting little of the report's welfare-policy proposals and referring several to the Scottish Government.
- On the £20 uplift and legacy benefits, it states "There was never any plan to extend the uplift to legacy benefits."
- On work allowances, it states it "has no plans to extend the work allowance to single adults".
- On Help to Claim funding, it "considers the existing resource to be sufficient", and says DWP agreed to fund Citizens Advice Scotland for another year, "up to 31 March 2022".
- On data sharing and Recommendations 2, 7 and 8, it says each data request "must be examined" by DWP as Data Controller, and treats several recommendations as "for the Scottish Government".