Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S5W-26063

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-25652

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Fair Start Scotland participants in each local authority area have reported deafness or partial hearing loss.

Question reference: S5W-25651

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Fair Start Scotland participants there are in each local authority area, broken down by health condition.

Question reference: S5W-25646

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Fair Start Scotland participants in each local authority area have achieved a (a) 13- and (b) 26-week job outcome, broken down by health condition.

Question reference: S5W-25649

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what stakeholder engagement it has carried out regarding its replacement of the DWP Specialised Employment Support schemes, and with which organisations.

In developing a replacement service for DWP’s Specialist Employability Support, we have engaged with a number of stakeholders in order to inform how the replacement service might better meet the needs of disabled people in Scotland.

This has included holding a number of stakeholder engagement events around Scotland, to ensure funding and support is best targeted at individuals most in need of assistance. Participants in these events included representatives from Local Authorities, the Third Sector and Disabled People’s Organisations, including, but not limited to: Glasgow Disability Alliance, Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living, Inclusion Scotland, SUSE, Shirlie Project, Highland Council, Action on Hearing Loss, Prince’s Trust, Remploy, Cantley Bridge College, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

In addition we are clear that, consistent with the principles of No One Left Behind , the new service must align to local strategic employability pipelines. We are therefore in dialogue with the Scottish and Local Government Alignment group to ensure appropriate integration.

Question reference: S5W-25615

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether a parent will have to reapply for the Scottish Child Payment in 2022-23 in the event that their child, for which the parent received the under-sixes payment of the Scottish Child Payment, reaches the age of six before 2022-23.

Given the speed at which the Scottish Child Payment is being rolled out, policy and delivery development to date has primarily focussed on the early payments for children aged under 6 which will begin before Christmas 2020.

Across social security, we are committed to reducing the barriers to claiming benefits and promoting take up, making the process as simple and straightforward as possible, and ensuring people are treated with dignity and respect. Ahead of the payment being fully rolled out by the end of 2022, we will continue to undertake detailed stakeholder engagement and user research, alongside operational and technical requirements, to inform future application and payment processes.

The latest policy position paper, published on gov.scot, provides further detail on this: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-child-payment-updated-position-paper/ .

Question reference: S5W-25614

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether a payment of the Scottish Child Payment for children under the age of six will continue to be paid in the event of a child reaching the age of six during (a) 2020-21 and (b) 2021-22.

When the Scottish Child Payment was launched, it was made clear that while the payment would be fully introduced by the end of 2022, early payments would be made for children under 6. In order to introduce this payment early, and significantly ahead of schedule, we have had to work within certain legal and technical parameters. This is, therefore, a standalone payment for eligible families with children under 6, and, at this stage, payments will not continue beyond this age during 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Full details of the legal and technical issues is set out in an updated position paper, published on Friday 4 October and available on the Scottish Government’s website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-child-payment-updated-position-paper/ .

Question reference: S5W-25700

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21923 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 March 2019, and in light of the Audit Scotland report, The 2018/19 Audit of Social Security Scotland, whether forthcoming agreements for disability and winter heating assistance will resolve the reported issue that Social Security Scotland cannot directly assess the levels of error and fraud under agency arrangements with the DWP.

Question reference: S5W-25699

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the mean salary is for staff in the (a) Programme Management and Delivery and (b) Chief Digital Officer division of the Social Security Directorate, broken down by grade, and how this compares with that of contingent staff.

We publish the following information on staff salaries in the Scottish Government, which includes the Social Security Directorate:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-sector-pay-policy-staff-pay-remits-2019-20-technical-guide/pages/9/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-19-00145/

https://www.gov.scot/policies/public-sector-pay/pay-transparency/

And we publish the following information on our staff numbers:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/workforce-information/

Regarding the salaries for contingent workers, we refer you to the PQ responses in the following links:

S5W-25516 – https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&ReferenceNumbers=S5W-25516&ResultsPerPage=10

S5W-25345 – https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&ReferenceNumbers=S5W-25345&ResultsPerPage=10

Question reference: S5W-25702

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21923 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 March 2019, whether it is in a position to provide more information regarding the estimated costs of the agency agreements for disability and winter heating assistance.