Social Security Scotland statement of reasons request statistics: FOI release

Information requested

Request for information 1: The number of requests the agency has made for statement of reasons following appeal decisions.

Request for information 2: Is it policy for the agency to request these after all decisions or all decisions against the original social security decision.

Response

Where a client chooses to challenge a benefit decision they have the option of requesting an appeal to the First Tier Tribunal. Where the Tribunal issues a summary decision, any party may request that the Tribunal issues a full written statement of reasons.

Request for information 1:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600. This would require manual interrogation of over 1,300 decision notices. A sample of searches was carried out, and to locate and retrieve the information within scope of your request would take in excess of 40 hours.

Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12. You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600 e.g. by requesting the information for a particular month.

You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at: https://www.foi.scot/how-do-i-ask

These figures would normally be held by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service. You may wish to contact them directly at Freedom of Information | Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service.

During the course of our searches for this request, we located some information which had been provided to us earlier by Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service for the period 1 December 2024 to 28 February 2025. This is presented in the below table.

Month	Number of Statements of Reasons requested
December 2024	114
January 2025	161
February 2025	172

*Note: the information provided in the table above is based on management information and has not undergone quality assurance.

Request for information 2:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested. Social Security Scotland does not have a policy that it requests statements of reasons following appeal decisions. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that Social Security Scotland does not have the information you have requested.

Outwith FOISA, it may be of assistance if we explain that Social Security Scotland reviews every decision notice when it is received from the Tribunal. This review has two purposes. First, it enables Social Security Scotland to verify that the decision notice contains all of the information that it requires in order to implement the Tribunal’s decision – particularly as written summary decisions are not produced in a single consistent format and so on occasion some information may be missing.

Secondly, it enables Social Security Scotland to identify cases where the Tribunal’s decision appears to contain an error of law. Where there appears to be an error of law, Social Security Scotland requires the Tribunal’s full written statement of reasons in order to apply to the Tribunal for a review of its decision or for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal. Social Security Scotland then seeks to use the most proportionate means of correcting an identified error (whether by asking the Tribunal for a correction certificate, a review or permission to appeal).

Additionally, it is Social Security Scotland’s practice to challenge all material errors, regardless of whether the error favours Social Security Scotland or the individual. The Tribunal has commented with approval on the practice of challenging errors which result in a less favourable outcome for the individual (for example, where the Tribunal decides that entitlement should begin on a later date than the legislation requires).

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.