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Official statistics, covering the first months of applications for the Best Start Grant, will be published in April 2019. More detailed analysis will be published in a quarterly publication series starting from August 2019. In line with the for Statistics, care will be taken to ensure that these publications are produced to a level of quality that meets users’ needs. Published data will be subject to disclosure control methods to protect the confidentiality of the data. There will be scope to analyse redeterminations made, processed and the outcomes, if we are satisfied with the quality of the data and can safeguard the confidentiality of individuals.

Make the Call is an established service aimed at benefit take-up. It is not comparable to the Financial Health Check Service which goes further by offering free personalised advice for people to help them reduce household outgoings by tackling the poverty premium where they may be paying more than they need to for basic goods and services.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-20880 on 24 January 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-20880 on 24 January 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at .

Programme Board Dashboards are part of routine reporting, and as such any RAG statuses are provided for internal discussion and not made public, on the grounds that doing so would inhibit substantially the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation. The Programme Director’s Update is used to enable critical discussion that in turn supports the delivery of social security for Scotland.

Official statistics, covering the first months of applications for the Best Start Grant, will be published in April 2019. More-detailed analysis will be published in a quarterly publication series starting from August 2019. In line with the for Statistics, care will be taken to ensure that these publications are produced to a level of quality that meets users’ needs. Published data will be subject to disclosure control methods to protect the confidentiality of the data.

Our assessment of the risk posed to Social Security Scotland by Serious and Organised Crime Groups takes place on an ongoing basis, and we have been consulting with experts and relevant organisations to understand these risks and to design responsive control measures. Further detail relating to this assessment is highly sensitive and cannot be shared in the public domain, however the agency’s Counter Fraud Strategy published in September 2018 outlines at high level the methods employed to adequately assess and mitigate the risk of fraud perpetrated by both internal and external threat actors, including that posed by Serious and Organised Crime Groups.

No direct or indirect decisions have been made about the implementation of the DWP Verify Earnings and Pensions service.

The original PQ referred to where Police Scotland would act as a Delivery Partner. We have no definition of a Delivery Partner.

However we have been clear that we anticipate that the Counter Fraud function within the Agency will participate in formal intelligence sharing networks (other participants include Police Scotland, HMRC, DWP and many other government departments) and/or collaborative investigations where appropriate. This position is reflected in the Counter Fraud Strategy published September 2018.

Social Security Scotland’s Counter Fraud team are a Specialist Reporting Agency. This means the agency has civilian investigation officers able to investigate allegations relating to the benefit offences introduced by the Social Security Act 2018 to criminal investigation standard, including direct submission of crime reports to the Crown Office for consideration of prosecution action. Police Scotland have the remit to investigate and report alleged criminal activity of any kind, which could include these offences, however should they decide to undertake such an investigation it would not constitute a service provision arrangement.

The Scottish Government entered into this agreement in order to deliver the Carer’s Allowance Supplement by summer 2018. This provides over 75,000 carers with an additional £442 in 2018-19, an increase of 13% on the DWP’s Carer’s Allowance. All aspects of the Carer’s Allowance Agency Agreement with DWP were subject to scrutiny and approval by the Social Security Programme Boards and Scottish Ministers. The DWP is clear that Fraud, Error and Debt arrangements associated with the Agreement and the operational model needs to remain consistent throughout Great Britain.