THE Scottish Government has raised fresh concerns about the impact of Conservative welfare cuts on powers due to be devolved to Holyrood.

Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil has called for an inter-governmental meeting to discuss the implications of a planned £12billion welfare cut on powers contained in the new Scotland Bill.

The Scottish Government has said it would be unacceptable for UK ministers to slash benefits before transferring responsibility - and reduced budgets - for them to Holyrood.

Mr Neil said the Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare, which was created last year to help implement the Smith Commission proposals on further devolution, should be convened as soon as possible.

He said: "Personal Independence Payment will be devolved to the Scottish Parliament, but we have already heard the UK Government plans to slash it by 20 per cent - a move we have strongly argued against on the grounds of fairness.

"The UK Government is planning make even more swingeing cuts to benefits and we need to know if this includes benefits that are to be devolved.

"This would be wholly unacceptable.

"For the past five years we have had organisations lining up to tell us about the damaging effect of welfare reform and benefit cuts on the people of Scotland and we have seen report after report highlighting the distress and desperation caused."

The joint committee has met twice so far, in February and March.