Social Security Scotland’s interim headquarters at Dundee House in Dundee and the Glasgow office at 220 High Street are both situated close to main bus routes and mainline rail stations.

Proximity to public transport links, frequency and volume of services and the availability of ground floor public spaces were key criterion in the analytical process which rated the shortlisted buildings in each city.

The interim Headquarters in Dundee and Glasgow office are fully compliant with Equalities Act legislation.

The intended outcome is that the event will generate competition for the tender process and that any feedback received will be considered when refining the requirements prior to commencing a tender exercise.

Accessibility and mobility access both to the interim buildings was a key criteria in arriving at the interim headquarters in Dundee and the office in Glasgow. A crucial component of this analysis was the accessibility of these buildings. The accessibility component considered the buildings themselves and their surrounding environments.

The eligibility criteria for Best Start Grant (BSG) ensure that low income families in Scotland who would have received a Sure Start Maternity Grant continue to receive support where they would not if eligibility was narrowed to match that for free school meals. Free school meals are universally available to pupils in primary 1-3 at all publicly funded schools in Scotland. For pupils above primary 3, free school meal eligibility is dependent on whether the pupil’s parents or carers, or the pupil themselves are in receipt of specified qualifying benefits, which are set out in legislation. There is an income threshold set in the qualifying benefits for free school meals where there isn’t for BSG. This means that BSG is paid to people on higher incomes than free school meals, including those experiencing in work poverty.

The documents cited are subject to a non-disclosure agreement as they contain sensitive information that is not yet in the public domain.

We intend to publish this as supplementary information with the Invitation to Tender (ITT) which, as it stands, will be issued to suppliers registered on the Scottish Governments Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) Lot 1 – Digital Outcomes.

Where words are used without further definition in legislation, they take their natural meaning in each context in which they are used. It is for the courts to interpret them if necessary, not the Scottish Government.

Scottish Government has published 2161 notices since 2015-16. The breakdown for each calendar year is as follows: 2015: 477; 2016: 511; 2017: 615; 2018: 558. Of this number we are aware of 3 notices being subject to NDA. We are also aware of a further 6 procurement exercises which used an NDA although there was no requirement for a contract notice in these instances. Complete data on the use of NDA across Scottish Government is not centrally held and confirmation of the actual number could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The information requested has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 60057).

The Scottish Government assumed executive competence for Carer's Allowance, and associated debt, on 3 September 2018. As Carers Allowance will continued to be delivered by DWP under an agency agreement, the recovery of this debt is subject to existing rules.