34.Section 23 defines the “Scottish social security system” as meaning, at the time of writing, the system constituted by Parts 2 and 3 of the Act. Subsection (c) provides an automatic extension to the definition, should in future the Scottish Parliament make legislation that provides for a new form of social security assistance, so that such assistance would also form part of the system. For the extension to apply, it would have to be a form of assistance that the Parliament only had competence to create through the power to create new social security benefits that is contained, with limits, in the Scotland Act 1998.
Overview Meaning of “Scottish social security system” (section 23)