Scottish Ministers have made the Social Security (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2025 (Commencement No. 2) Regulations 2025, made on 26 November, laid before the Scottish Parliament on 1 December, and coming into force on 15 December 2025. The instrument commences Section 18 only to enable the public consultation required by new section 87B(6) of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018.
Section 18 inserts sections 87B to 87E into the 2018 Act. Once fully commenced, these provisions allow the Scottish Ministers to request information from individuals who are entitled to assistance, solely for auditing the monetary value of error and fraud in the Scottish social security system and for directly connected activities, with a statutory restriction on subsequent use of that information.
Under section 87B, any request must be answered by a specified deadline and may require an in‑person interview, a telephone or video call, a written response in prescribed circumstances, or another format set in regulations. Section 87B(7) provides for suspension of assistance where an individual fails to meet the deadline to provide the information.
The consultation triggered by this commencement flows from section 87B(6), which requires Ministers to consult publicly before making regulations that identify categories of individuals who must not be asked to provide information under section 87B(5). The Scottish Parliament’s Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee pressed for this requirement at Stage 2 and noted that the exemption regulations are subject to the affirmative procedure.
Section 18 also builds in safeguards around any future audit requests. Inserted section 87C allows an individual to ask Ministers to withdraw a request where there is a good reason, with decision‑making timescales to be set in regulations and the decision final. Inserted section 87D gives a right to have a supporter present during any interview, call or other response, and section 87E provides a statutory right to independent advocacy for disabled people in connection with an audit information request.
Scope is defined tightly. The new power applies to individuals who are entitled to assistance under the 2018 Act and concerns information about their entitlement and payments. It is framed to support audit and measurement activity rather than to make entitlement decisions.
Today’s commencement does not activate the full audit information powers. It enables only the consultation step from 15 December 2025; a further commencement will be required before Ministers can issue audit information requests. Earlier provisions of the 2025 Act were commenced on 10 May 2025 under Commencement No. 1.
For delivery bodies and advice services, the consultation will set out proposals on who should be exempt from audit information requests, acceptable response formats, and administrative timescales. The form‑of‑response regulations made under section 87B(4) are subject to the negative procedure, while exemption regulations under section 87B(5) proceed by affirmative procedure.