Commentary on provisions of Act Section 31: Employment support
This section amends Section H3 (job search and support) in Part 2 of Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act 1998.
	Exception 1 gives the Scottish Parliament legislative competence in relation to creating employment schemes to assist those at risk of becoming long-term unemployed, and to help disabled people into work, including schemes which seek to help employers find suitable employees. For example, under current arrangements in Great Britain much of this support is provided through the Work Programme in respect of the long-term unemployed, and through Work Choice in respect of disabled people.
	The Scottish Parliament will be able to make provision for arrangements to provide facilities, support or services to help people into work, or where they arrange for others to provide facilities, support or services to help people into work. For example, currently the UK Government arranges for support to the long term unemployed to be provided by third party providers, contracted through the Work Programme contracts.
	The arrangements may include making payments to a person. Examples of where payments are made in respect of current or previous equivalent UK Government schemes include payments to contracted Work Programme Providers for the results they achieve, payments to employers as Wage Incentives, and payments to claimants to cover travel expenses incurred whilst engaging with provision.
	These arrangements could support claimants through work search support, provision of skills and training, and community placements, or through other new techniques. Any support for those at risk of long-term unemployment must assist the claimant for at least one year.
	Subsection (5) provides for section 56(1)(g) of the Scotland Act 1998 to have effect as if it referred to section 17B of the Jobseekers Act 1995 (schemes for assisting persons to obtain employment: "work for your benefit" schemes etc). This enables the functions under section 17B to continue to be exercisable separately within devolved competence by a Minister of the Crown as well as by the Scottish Ministers, thus providing an exception to the general rule that functions which transfer to the Scottish Ministers under section 53 of the Scotland Act 1998 are no longer exercisable by Ministers of the Crown in or as regards Scotland.