SC/S5/17/11/A
SOCIAL SECURITY COMMITTEE
AGENDA
11th Meeting, 2017 (Session 5)
Thursday 18 May 2017
The Committee will meet at 9.30 am in the David Livingstone Room (CR6).
1.
Decision on taking business in private: The Committee will decide whether
to take items 4, 5 and 6 in private.
2.
Correspondence: The Committee will consider correspondence from the
Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee.
3.
Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill (in private): The Committee will consider a draft
Stage 1 report.
4.
Annual report: The Committee will consider the text of their video for its annual
report.
5.
'Your Say' Event: The Committee will consider whether to hold a 'Your Say'
workshop and evidence session as part of its consideration of the forthcoming
social security bill.
6.
Witness expenses: The Committee will consider whether to delegate to the
Convener responsibility for arranging for the SPCB to pay, under Rule 12.4.3,
any expenses of witnesses for this Committee in session 5.
Simon Watkins
Clerk to the Social Security Committee
Room TG.01
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
Tel: 0131 348 5228
Email: [email protected]
SC/S5/17/11/A
The papers for this meeting are as follows—
Agenda Item 2
Note by the Clerk
SC/S5/17/11/1
Agenda Item 3
PRIVATE PAPER
SC/S5/17/11/2 (P)
Agenda Item 4
PRIVATE PAPER
SC/S5/17/11/3 (P)
Agenda Item 5
PRIVATE PAPER
SC/S5/17/11/4 (P)
Agenda Item 6
PRIVATE PAPER
SC/S5/17/11/5 (P)
SC/S5/17/11/1
Social Security Committee
11th Meeting, 2017 (Session 5), Thursday 18 May 2017
Correspondence with the Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny
Committee
Background
1. The Committee Convener has received correspondence from the Public Audit
and Post-Legislative Scrutiny (PAPLS) Committee (attached at the Annexe).
2. The PAPLS Committee is asking all committees for examples of any major,
recurring themes which have arisen during committee scrutiny. It intends to
highlight these themes to the Auditor General, with the aim of building closer links
with other committees and Audit Scotland, so that the collective scrutiny of the
Scottish Government and public bodies can be improved.
3. One such recurring theme from the Social Security Committee’s work, it is
proposed, is the need for the Scottish Government and the UK Government to
work very closely together to deliver devolved social security.
Action
4. The Committee may wish to highlight the theme suggested above to the
Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee and any other major,
recurring themes suggested by Committee members.
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SC/S5/17/11/1
Annexe
Sandra White MSP,
Convener,
Public Audit and Post-legislative
Scrutiny Committee
Social Security Committee
Room T 3.60
The Scottish Parliament
EDINBURGH
EH99 1SP
Direct Tel: (0131) 348 5390
Email: [email protected]
19 April 2017
Dear Sandra,
The Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee has worked hard this
session to build closer links with other committees and Audit Scotland, so that our
collective scrutiny of the Scottish Government and public bodies can be improved.
In this context, I am forwarding to committee conveners a copy of our response to
the interim report of the budget process review group. In particular, I wanted to draw
your attention to the following suggestion—
“ … the Auditor General is responsible for determining the programme of
performance audits. The Auditor General cannot be directed by the Parliament, but
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SC/S5/17/11/1
must take into account any proposals made by the Parliament. In order to make
committees and Audit Scotland more integrated, the Audit Committee intends to
write periodically to other committees to ask whether any major, recurring themes
have arisen from their scrutiny. The Audit Committee will then highlight suggestions
received to the Auditor General, in order to inform her future audits.”
In essence, the key point is that there is scope for greater linkages to be made
between the work of committees and the Auditor General. I would therefore be
grateful if you could submit to us any ideas, based on your scrutiny to date, that you
believe would be worthy of the Auditor General’s consideration.
We will then write to the Auditor General with the collective view of committees, to
help inform her planning for future performance audits. To fit in with Audit Scotland’s
work cycles, the Committee would be grateful for your response by the end of
September 2017.
We are aware that some committees and clerks have informal discussions with Audit
Scotland and the Auditor General, and we have no desire to cut across this activity.
Rather, our intention is to try to encourage committees to work in a more collegiate
manner, to ensure that our combined scrutiny is as effective as possible.
Regards,
Jenny Marra MSP
Convener of the Committee
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