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The first meeting of Social Security Scotland’s Audit and Assurance Committee will fall in line with the audit cycle and will take place before the end of this year.

As at 7 September 2018,163 staff were employed in Social Security Scotland.

The breakdown of protected characteristics are as follows:

Not all of the data requested is available. We hold a record of agreed interview dates and agreed start dates but we have no way to confirm whether a candidate actually attended the interview or ended up taking up the post.

Table A: Breakdown of diversity characteristics for candidates who applied for a vacancy in Social Security Scotland.

On the 31 August there were 150 people who transferred from the Social Security Agency Implementation Division within Social Security Directorate in the Scottish Government to Social Security Scotland. The following table provides a breakdown on protected characteristics.

The Scottish Government does not track and quantify social prescribing, although a 2017 report for the Scottish Government by Voluntary Health Scotland found this approach underway in 31 of the 32 Scottish local authority areas.

Sections 3, 8 and 9 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 will be commenced later this autumn.

Social Security Scotland is an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government. The Agency went live on 1 September 2018 and is currently accountable for payment of Carer’s Allowance in Scotland and payment of the Carer’s Allowance Supplement.

The budget for the Agency for the financial year 2018-19 is currently expected to be £207 million. The budget comprises three elements and covers the seven months from 1 September 2018 to 31 March 2019. The three elements of the budget are: Carer’s Allowance (£155.5 million), Carer’s Allowance Supplement (£34.9 million) and operational costs (£16.6 million). Significant elements of this budget will be demand led.

The final amounts to be allocated for Social Security Scotland for the 2018-19 financial year will be confirmed through the spring revision to the 2018-19 Scottish Budget.

Social Security Scotland's Corporate Plan will be published shortly, as an interim document. As with everything it does, Social Security Scotland will develop and iterate its Corporate Plan in collaboration with stakeholder communities. Social Security Scotland's Corporate Plan will comprise one of three elements which will make up the Agency's tri-partite strategic planning and reporting regime. The other two parts will be the Agency's Annual Business Plan and Annual Report and Accounts, which will be published next year.

As Universal Credit is reserved to the UK Government, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) collects data on the Universal Credit Scottish choices on behalf of the Scottish Government. In line with good practice, the Scottish Government then carries out quality assurance on this data to minimise risk of error and ensure that it is suitable for publication.

The information published in January 2018 was initial management information, covering the period 11 November to 31 December 2017, to provide early indications of the take up of the Universal Credit Scottish choices. The Scottish Government will publish further management information covering the first six months of operation of the Universal Credit Scottish choices in October.

The qualifying date for the first payment of Carer’s Allowance Supplement is 16 April 2018.