'THE Tory Government at Westminster continues to make an absolute hash of the way in which it is conducting the Brexit negotiations. This week it is fishing communities around the country – one of the groups who were falsely promised so much by those campaigning to leave the UK – who have been massively let down by Brexit and the UK Government.

That is just one of the many reasons that an EU Continuity Bill has been formally introduced to the Scottish Parliament to protect devolution and prepare Scotland’s laws for Brexit.

The Bill is being introduced after UK Government legislation was called “incompatible with the devolution settlement” by a cross-party Holyrood committee.

The UK legislation - the EU (Withdrawal) Bill - would mean the UK Government taking control of some devolved powers such as aspects of farming and fishing, after Brexit. This is clear attempt at a power grab by Westminster on issues that should, rightly, be dealt with at Holyrood.

The Scottish Parliament has now passed the Continuity Bill to go on to the Committee stage and it will come into effect if the Scottish Parliament decides not to consent to the EU Withdrawal Bill.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, in one of those areas where power has been won from Westminster and now lies with the Scottish Parliament, this week sees the start of the first phase of recruitment to Social Security Scotland, the Scottish Government Agency that will be responsible for the delivery of devolved benefits.

This first recruitment campaign is looking to fill vacancies for 80 full time equivalent administrative posts to deliver the first new benefit change introduced by the Scottish Government – a 13% increase in Carer’s Allowance.

In parallel to that Social Security Scotland will also be looking to recruit Team Leader posts. In line with an agreement with the Council of Scottish Government Unions, the first tranche of these line management roles will initially be advertised to all eligible Civil Servants. Any line management role not filled via this route will immediately be advertised to external applicants just like the process being followed for the administrative posts.

This announcement on recruitment marks another milestone in the progress towards establishing Social Security Scotland and starts a series of phased recruitment, which will take place between now and the end of this Parliament, to the agency’s HQ in Dundee, to the Glasgow office, but also to place Social Security Scotland staff in every Local Authority in Scotland.

I am pleased to note that Social Security Scotland are setting aside a proportion of this and subsequent recruitment campaigns for Modern Apprenticeships.

Any constituents who are interested in pursuing the possibility of applying for these or future posts should check out the recruitment website www.work-for-scotland.org.