Employment Injury Assistance delivery - next steps: consultation

Section 3 – Next steps for Employment Injury Assistance in Scotland

Option 1 Timeline

The following timeline sets out the steps involved if the Scottish Government were to proceed to deliver Employment Injury Assistance on a 'like-for-like' basis to the current Scheme.

2 months after end of consultation:

• Focus on exploring how Employment Injury Assistance could be delivered in this Parliament.

June 2024- early 2026:

• Policy and operational work on developing systems and processes required for delivery of Employment Injury Assistance
• Regulations drafted and laid.

Late 2025/ early 2026:

• Employment Injury Assistance launches on a like-for-like basis with the Industrial Injuries Scheme.
• Establishment of stakeholder advisory group.

Option 2 Timeline

This timeline below sets out proposed next steps in the development of Employment Injury Assistance in line with the Scottish Government's preference to prioritise long-term reform of the current Industrial Injuries Scheme. While, this timeline is dependent on the extent and complexity of the changes people would like to see made to the Scheme, work would commence immediately following this consultation.

1 month after end of consultation:

• Establishment of Employment Injury Assistance stakeholder advisory group.
• Advisory Group to include experts, and organisations with experience of supporting people access the Industrial Injuries Scheme.

3 months after end of consultation:

• First meetings of stakeholder advisory group, with input from people with experience of the Industrial Injuries Scheme.

9 months after end of consultation:

• First reports and advice issued by stakeholder advisory group.

12 months after end of consultation:

• Publication of high-level options for Employment Injury Assistance.
• Ongoing engagement with stakeholders and people with lived experience.

Question 3: Please tell us if there is anything relating to the timelines set out above that you wish to provide feedback on. Please specify which timeline you are providing feedback for.

Please give reasons for your answer.

List of questions asked

Question 1: Do you agree or disagree that the Industrial Injuries Scheme is not fit for purpose and should be reformed? [agree/disagree/don't know]

Please give reasons for your answer.

Question 2: Of the two options (1 – prioritise like-for-like benefit delivered with full case transfer and benefit reform to follow in the longer-term, and 2 – prioritise reform to deliver an updated benefit and a modernised approach delivery) which do you think the Scottish Government should proceed with?

Please give reasons for your answer.

A) Option 1

B) Option 2

C) Neither

D) Don't know

Please give reasons for your answer.

Question 3: Please tell us if there is anything relating to the timelines set out above that you wish to provide feedback on. Please specify which timeline you are providing feedback for.

Please give reasons for your answer.

Responding to this consultation

We are inviting responses to this consultation by 25 June 2024.

Please respond to this consultation using the Scottish Government's consultation hub, Citizen Space. You can save and return to your responses while the consultation is still open. Please ensure that consultation responses are submitted before the closing date of 25 June 2024.

If you are unable to respond using our consultation hub, please complete the Respondent Information Form to:

Disability Benefits Policy Unit

Scottish Government

Area 1B (South) Victoria Quay

Edinburgh EH6 6QQ

Handling your response

If you respond using the consultation hub, you will be directed to the About You page before submitting your response. Please indicate how you wish your response to be handled and, in particular, whether you are content for your response to published. If you ask for your response not to be published, we will regard it as confidential, and we will treat it accordingly.

All respondents should be aware that the Scottish Government is subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and would therefore have to consider any request made to it under the Act for information relating to responses made to this consultation exercise.

If you are unable to respond via Citizen Space, please complete and return the Respondent Information Form included in this document.

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Next steps in the process

Where respondents have given permission for their response to be made public, and after we have checked that they contain no potentially defamatory material, responses will be made available to the public on the Scottish Government consultation page. If you use the consultation hub to respond, you will receive a copy of your response via email.

Following the closing date, all responses will be analysed and considered along with any other available evidence to help us. Responses will be published where we have been given permission to do so. An analysis report will also be made available.

Comments and complaints

If you have any comments about how this consultation exercise has been conducted, please send them to the contact address above or at EIAconsultation@gov.scot.

Scottish Government consultation process

Consultation is an essential part of the policymaking process. It gives us the opportunity to consider your opinion and expertise on a proposed area of work.

You can find all our consultations online on the Scottish Government consultation page. Each consultation details the issues under consideration, as well as a way for you to give us your views, either online, by email or by post.

Responses will be analysed and used as part of the decision making process, along with a range of other available information and evidence. We will publish a report of this analysis for every consultation. Depending on the nature of the consultation exercise the responses received may:

• indicate the need for policy development or review
• inform the development of a particular policy
• help decisions to be made between alternative policy proposals
• be used to finalise legislation before it is implemented

While details of particular circumstances described in a response to a consultation exercise may usefully inform the policy process, consultation exercises cannot address individual concerns and comments, which should be directed to the relevant public body.