Scottish Welfare Powers

John Lamont Excerpts

Tuesday 20th March 2018 Westminster Hall

[John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)]

Like, I suspect, most hon. Members, I got involved in politics to make people’s lives better and to make our country a better place. A large part of the casework I have to deal with revolves around welfare and ensuring that people get what they are entitled to from the safety net that the state rightly provides. That is why I find it so annoying and so frustrating that the SNP chooses to make party politics of this. While they constantly condemn the choices that the UK Government make about welfare, when this Conservative Government gave the Scottish Parliament even more powers to take those decisions itself, the SNP Government have dithered and delayed and pushed the powers back for as long as they possibly could to avoid making the tough choices and taking responsibility for being in government, and would rather just stoke up the politics of grievance. The voters see through it. We see through it. It is about time the SNP stood up for the rhetoric that it is so keen to articulate and actually took responsibility for being in government.

--- Later in debate ---

[John Lamont]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Neil Gray]

To paraphrase Mike Russell, I am afraid I have too few minutes and too much to contradict the Tories on. I am very sorry, but I do not have enough time. I have taken other interventions.

We will establish an independent scrutiny body—the Scottish commission on social security—and we have a legal duty to scrutinise proposals for regulations and have regard to human rights. The new agency will seek medical information at the outset of an application—applicants will not be required to collect it at appeal stage—so face-to-face assessments will be reduced. The legislative process required to deal with the successful transition of 11 benefits is still going on in Holyrood, so there may be more detail to come.

Those who contradict the hon. Member for Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock are not restricted to SNP Members. I am keen to quote a couple of his colleagues in the Scottish Parliament. On 19 December, the Tory spokes- person on social security, Adam Tomkins, described the Scottish Government’s Bill as “landmark legislation” and said that

“the general principles of the bill should be supported.”

His colleague, Michelle Ballantyne MSP, went even further on the same day, and said that our Bill

“has the potential to revolutionise social security in this country.”

It is interesting that the hon. Gentleman has chosen this topic for debate, given that his colleagues up the road are not quite so keen to denigrate the Scottish Government’s actions. That is one of the reasons why I asked whether he had written to the Scottish Government at any stage about any of his concerns. You will be shocked to learn that he has not, Mr Rosindell. Call me cynical, but I think motives other than just inquiring about the progress in this area might have been at play when he called this debate.

The Scottish Tories were supposed to be coming to Westminster to vote as a bloc to protect Scottish interests and advocate for Scotland. Instead, they have used Westminster as a platform to try to denigrate the Scottish Government to the point of farce. Perhaps if the Scottish Tories had spent less time trying to do the job of MSPs, which many of them left, and more time watching what their own Government are doing, they would not be in the fisheries mess they currently find themselves in.

That leads me to my main questions for the Minister. How are the UK Government’s plans for the new Scottish social security agency going? What work has the Minister commissioned to ensure there is no delay to the smooth progress, which is currently on track to be delivered by the Scottish Government? What work have the UK been doing to keep up with—