Research - paying participant expenses and compensating for time: guidance

4. Deciding whether you should pay participant expenses

You will need to offer to pay participant expenses if the following two criteria are fulfilled:

• taking part in research or a public engagement will cost the participant any money
• the participant’s expenses are not covered by an employer or other organisation

We define ‘expenses’ as any cost that arises from people taking part in a piece of research or a cost that could act as a barrier to participation. This can include travel, accommodation, childcare (formal or informal receipts permitted), subsistence food and other associated costs, and support worker/Personal Assistant wages and expenses. The starting point for the rules for expenses is the Travel and Subsistence policy for Scottish Government staff, but you should be open to accommodating unexpected costs and barriers that participants might experience.

Individuals living with a disability, impairment and/or long lasting physical or mental health conditions may incur larger expenses and require additional support to be able to participate in research. For example, they may require a support worker to accompany them to a research engagement – in this situation, they will likely need research payments to cover both their own and their support worker’s expenses and time.

When you have identified that you will need to pay participant expenses, you should follow the steps set out below. These steps are for internal projects. For commissioned projects, payment of expenses will likely be passed to the contractor after Step 1 - you should factor this in to your budget and spec for commissioned work.

4.1 Step 1: Familiarise yourself with the expenses policy and templates

Use the Scottish Government Travel and Subsistence policy and the templates in the Annexes of this guidance to set out clear criteria for participant expenses that are being paid. You will need to establish available budget for participant expenses.

You can tailor the templates to your local situation as needed, for example add local branding or headings.

4.2 Step 2: If possible, book accommodation, travel and other costs in advance for participants

Booking participant accommodation, travel and other costs in advance reduces participants’ upfront costs and minimises the financial burden to participants. Your local Finance colleagues and Business Management Unit will be able to book participant travel and accommodation in advance. In the first instance, this should be done using the Corporate Travel Management (CTM) system. There will be situations where the CTM system may not be able make the required bookings e.g. bus travel, accommodation that requires specific adjustments. In these instances, you can receive special permissions to use an ePC card for these bookings. To do so, the ePC cardholder should first contact CTM and discuss why required bookings cannot be fulfilled. CTM will advise and if appropriate give permission for the relevant ‘merchant categories’ to be made available for use via ePC.

It is recommended that you talk through this guidance with local Finance and/or Business Management colleagues well ahead of needing to make any bookings, so that they understand the process that needs to be followed for research expenses and you can agree how best you can work together to deliver this.

4.3 Step 3: Provide participants with expenses information ahead of their involvement

Using the information and templates in the Annexes this document, you should clearly set out to participants what expenses will be covered, and how and when these will be paid. In advance of their involvement, you should make sure that participants understand the process that will be followed, have access to support if needed, and that they are aware of their responsibilities, for example whether receipts will be required.

4.4 Step 4: Gather information of expenses incurred

For any expenses that it has not been possible to cover in advance, use the expenses forms in the Annexes of this document. You should make sure that where required participants are able to provide receipts, and that participants understand that they will be required to provide receipts in advance of incurring their expenses.

4.5 Step 5: Pay any outstanding participant expenses

When you need to pay outstanding participant expenses, you should follow one of the processes set out below.

To make bank transfer payments to participants you will need to use the Scottish Government Finance system (SEAS). For participants who do not have bank accounts, voucher payments will need to be made. At Divisional or Directorate level, teams will arrange, manage and cover the costs these payments.

4.6 SEAS – the Scottish Government Finance system

There are different ways to make payments on SEAS, depending on:

• whether this is a one-off or repeated payment
• whether a standard payment timeline can be followed (approximately four working days) or if a same-day payment needs to be made

It is recommended that well in advance of making these payments, you discuss this guidance with a Finance colleague that will be involved in payment processing e.g. your ePC (electronic purchasing card) holder, local Finance Lead or BCLO (Budget Centre Liaison Officer). This will help them be aware of the process that needs to be followed for research payments and you can agree how best you can work together to deliver this.

Please note that when the standard timeline is used to make payments, it will take approximately four working days for payment to be made to a participant. This is because Accounts Payable’s processing of payments can take up to approximately 48 hours, after which two working days are required before the issued payment will be in a participant’s bank account. If a participant cannot wait that length of time to receive either a one-off or recurring payment, you should follow the same-day payment option.

4.6.1 One-off payments via SEAS

If a participant is only being paid once for one set of expenses, you should complete a One-Off Payment form and send it to accounts.payable@gov.scot. Once this has been processed by the Accounts team, which can take up to approximately 48 hours, the payment will be transferred to the participant’s bank account in two working days.

There is a maximum payment value of £500.

4.6.2 Recurring payments

If a participant is being paid several times for different sets of expenses and/or for expenses incurred through repeat involvements e.g. they are on a panel, they should be set up as a supplier on EASEbuy/PECOS and SEAS. They will need to invoice Scottish Government for each payment.

The participant will first need to complete a New Supplier form – this should be done well in advance of their involvement.

Your ePC (electronic purchasing card) holder, local Finance Lead or BCLO (Budget Centre Liaison Officer) can then create a Purchase Order (PO) and receipt on EASEbuy/PECOS. This PO should be referred to on each invoice for a participant’s payments. You may need to support participants to prepare invoices – an example invoice is provided in Annexe A, which meets HMRC requirements. This invoice will need to be accompanied by expenses receipts. As above, participants should be informed in advance of their involvement about the receipts they will need to keep.

Invoices must be submitted to accounts.payable@gov.scot. No payment can be made without an invoice which contains:

• the information set out in the example invoice in Annexe A
• a PO number
• a receipt in PECOS/EASEbuy
• expenses receipts (if relevant)

Once an invoice and receipts have been received from a participant, these will be processed by the Accounts team (which can take up to approximately 48 hours), after which the payment will be transferred to the participant’s bank account in two working days.

4.6.3 Same-day payments via SEAS

Wherever possible, you should book participant accommodation, travel or other costs in advance to avoid a participant being out of pocket. There will be some instances where this has not been possible and where you will want to make same-day payments, for example if a participant’s involvement is dependent on payment being made more promptly than two working days.

There are additional costs associated with same-day payments. You will need to be able to demonstrate to the Treasury and Banking team that a same-day payment is the only available method – they can refuse to make a same-day payment if another method is available.

To make a same-day payment (also termed a CHAPS payment) two forms need to be completed:

• SEAS Sterling Manual Payment Authorisation form
• SEAS Sterling Manual Payment request form

These forms are available under the CHAPS payment heading of the Guidelines for Processing Manual Payments, and need to be signed by different signatories.

These forms should be submitted to sgmanualpayments@gov.scot before midday on the day that the payment is to be made. Full details of the process are set out under the CHAPS payment heading of the Guidelines for Processing Manual Payments.

4.7 Paying participants who do not have bank accounts

Wherever possible, individuals who do not have access to a bank account should have all expenses paid for by Scottish Government in advance. At present, participants who do not have access to a bank account will need to receive reimbursement for any outstanding expenses in vouchers - see section 10 of this guidance for further information. We are working to establish a government-wide approach to making use of platforms like I-Movo, which allow individuals without bank accounts to withdraw cash from local retailers.

4.8 Record keeping

You will need to keep a record of receipts for audit purposes, for example a spreadsheet or file confirming who payments have been made to, how much was paid and when the transfer took place. It is recommended that receipts are scanned or photographed and recorded in eRDM with an identifying code relating to the spreadsheet where payments are set out, so that an audit trail is possible. You can also keep the physical receipts if these can be stored securely over time.

You will need to ensure that you have in place appropriate data protection measures to process and securely store any personal data, including participant bank account details, in line with any Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) you have in place.