New Scotland Bill Amendments

Yesterday morning, with much fanfare, the UK Government lodged their amendments to the Scotland Bill 2015-16. The Secretary of State promised half of these would be ‘significant changes’ and that these new additions would: ‘put beyond any reasonable doubt, for any reasonable person, that the Government has delivered the cross-party Smith agreement.’ Well, this reasonable person - my sister would argue that point - remains to be convinced. Anyway, let’s start with the good news. It had been widely - and loudly - rumoured that amendments would be made to the definition of carers in the Bill. The third sector has been critical of the restrictive eligibility criteria since the draft clauses were published back in January. Thankfully, our calls for changes have been heard.

On employment support the UK Government remains silent with no amendments made.

The government’s amendment removes the phrase ‘relevant carer’ and replaces this with ‘person’. If passed, this amendment will give the Scottish Parliament the power to make carers benefit payments to, effectively, anyone who provides regular and substantial care, no matter their circumstances. Other social security amendments include removing the cap on the amount of discretionary financial assistance an individual can receive to help with their rental costs, and giving the Scottish Parliament the power to legislate for forms of non-financial assistance to help reduce maternity expenses, funeral expenses or expenses for heating in cold weather. Meanwhile, a proposed new clause would give the Scottish Parliament powers over welfare foods programmes. Welfare foods are liquid cows’ milk, dried milks, vitamin tablets and vitamin drops – basically anything that helps improve nutrition for pregnant women, mothers and children. Significantly, there was nothing on the power to create new benefits. However, in his written statement to the House of Commons yesterday, David Mundell wrote: ‘Paragraph 54 of the Smith Agreement relates to the power to create new benefits in devolved areas. A new clause will be tabled to address this.’ I’ll wait with baited breath to see if this clause appears! On the equalities side of things, there have been a number of amendments made which, I confess, I don’t fully understand. One of the amendments concerns protected characteristics and would give the Scottish Parliament powers relating to appointments to the boards of Scottish public authorities. In addition to this, a proposed new clause would enable Scottish Ministers to use Part 1 of the Equality Act 2010 in respect of public bodies exercising devolved functions in Scotland. My understanding is that this new clause is more in line with the powers the Smith Commission intended. Which is good to see but it’s a shame that these ‘substantive’ amendments have failed to deliver in other areas. On employment support the UK Government remains silent with no amendments made and until the promised new clause on the power to create new benefits appears the Bill still falls short of fully implementing Smith. Some interesting amendments have been lodged by Ian Murray MP, not least his amendment on Gift Aid. There are also his amendments which would allow the Scottish Parliament to make discretionary payments in cases where the need has arisen from the individual being sanctioned. Mr. Murray has also proposed a new clause for the creation a Joint (cross-Parliament) Committee on Welfare Devolution to oversee the transfer and implementation of new welfare powers. Under Mr. Murray’s proposal, this Committee would have the power to create an advisory committee: ‘comprising academics, representatives of the third sector and voluntary organisations, and other relevant stakeholders.’ However, the week is yet young and the Report Stage a full six days away, so there’s time for more amendments both from the UK Government and others. The SNP amendments are still to come and it’ll be interesting to see how they respond. So, will the Scotland Bill 2015-16 deliver on the Smith agreement? I’d argue it’s closer to doing so than it was this time last week but I think there’s still more work to do.