Overview
3.The overarching policy objectives of the Act are:
	To allow for the appointment of persons to act on behalf of a child where there is no person with legal authority who is willing and able to so act;
	To allow for the appointment of a person to act on behalf of an adult who does not lack capacity but due to difficult circumstances wishes for an appointee to act on their behalf;
	To introduce provisions in relation to all appointments of persons to act on behalf of a child or individual by Scottish Ministers, and to extend those appointments to include assistance under top up regulations made under section 79 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 (‘the 2018 Act’);
	To enable the Scottish Ministers to withhold health information where its disclosure would cause serious harm to an individual;
	To confer powers on the Scottish Ministers to make provision in regulations about the investigation of offences in relation to top up assistance created under section 79 of the the 2018 Act;
	To create statutory fraud offences in relation to the types of top up assistance created under section 79 of the 2018 Act;
	To extend the duty on the Scottish Ministers to inform about possible eligibility under section 53 of the 2018 Act to include assistance under top up regulations made under section 79 of the 2018 Act;
	To modify the power to make regulations under schedule 5 of the 2018 Act, to widen the category of qualified persons whose clinical judgment, based on the appropriate guidance, will be accepted in relation to a diagnosis of terminal illness for the purpose of entitlement to disability assistance;
	To introduce powers for the Scottish Ministers to make provision in regulations about circumstances in which Ministers may suspend payment of ongoing types of assistance under the 2018 Act;
	To introduce powers for the Scottish Ministers to prescribe circumstances in which an individual who has an ongoing entitlement to assistance may be paid a nil amount of that assistance;
	To enable the Scottish Ministers, by regulations, to transfer to the First-Tier Tribunal (FTT) for Scotland some or all of the competence and jurisdiction of the sheriff courts in relation to the recovery of top up assistance created under section 79 of the 2018 Act;
	To extend the duty upon the Scottish Ministers to report annually to the Scottish Parliament on the inflation-adjusted levels of assistance to include top up assistance created under section 79 of the 2018 Act, and to extend the duty to uprate under the 2018 Act to include the Scottish Child Payment; and
	To enable other types of judges to be temporarily authorised to sit in the FTT and the Upper Tribunal.
4.The Act contains 19 sections in relation to the policy objectives identified above. Explanatory Notes on the various sections of the Act are provided below. A detailed explanation of the policy intentions underpinning the Act can be found in the Policy Memorandum published alongside the Bill for the Act.