Chamber and committees

Since 2014, Scottish Ministers have provided almost £4m to establish and support the See Hear Strategy, which is available to view on the Scottish Government website.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-22380 on 17 April 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

In addition, the Scottish Government has a commitment to promote the use and understanding of British Sign Language (BSL) as a full and proper language across the Scottish public sector, and has a BSL National Plan in place for 2017 to 2023 with 70 actions across ten long-term ambitions.

Scottish Government has provided £1m funding over the period 2016-2020 to deliver the contactSCOTLAND-BSL online interpreting Video Relay Service, which enables Deaf and Deafblind BSL users to contact Scottish public sector bodies, third sector organisations and the private sector. The service is accessible to Deafblind BSL users, by making use of braille displays and speech synthesisers. The service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

We are currently considering how this service can be developed to support people who do not use BSL, including those who are deaf, deafened, deafblind or hard of hearing.

Additionally, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-21736 on 5 March 2019.

As in 2011, the 2021 Census intends to collect information about the number of people who have “Deafness or partial hearing loss”, as well as demographic information that will provide age and location. A new question on BSL use is proposed for the 2021 Census. This will provide information about whether these people use BSL, for the first time in Scotland’s Census.

The Census does not intend to collect information about levels of hearing loss. National Records of Scotland received requests for many more questions than could reasonably be included in the census. In coming to a final selection of questions and question changes, some difficult decisions needed to be made between the benefits of different questions and question changes. The criteria used to make these decisions was published in April 2018.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-24990 on 12 September 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

DWP will cease the managed migration of working age people receiving DLA to PIP from 1 April 2020, when Scottish Ministers take executive competence for the remaining devolved benefits.

The date when working age DLA clients will be transferred to Social Security Scotland has not been agreed. The Scottish Government are working with the Department for Work and Pensions to understand DWP’s forecasts for the remaining working age DLA clients, and thereby develop options for the safe and secure transfer of these clients.

Information on what the (a) annual and (b) total cumulative loss of benefit is for people who have already been migrated from DLA to PIP is held by the Department for Work and Pensions, not the Scottish Government.

Information on how many people on PIP have been migrated under the current arrangements in each year since the migration began is held by Department for Work and Pensions, not the Scottish Government.

Information on how many people who receive DLA will now have their migration suspended has been requested from the Department for Work and Pensions.

As explained in my letter to the Social Security Committee, we expect advocacy services to be in place for Summer 2020, when we commence delivery of Disability Assistance for Children and Young People.

Scottish Government publish their contract award notices on Public Contracts Scotland, supporting the principles of transparency and openness. This applies to regulated procurements (£50,000 goods/services and £2 million works). Details can be found here Public Contracts Scotland .

There is no requirement to publish contract award notices for un-regulated procurements, where the value is under £50,000 goods/services or under £2 million works, or call-off contracts from Frameworks.

Only one procurement exercise for the programme has been terminated. This was for Disability Benefits Assessments Service Design with an estimated value of £8m.

I will update Parliament on our position on social security in due course. In the meantime, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-24018 on 26 June 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

We are working closely with Audit Scotland on the Annual Report and Accounts audit process. That process remains on schedule to table the first set of Accounts for Social Security Scotland in line with our legislative requirements.

The Carers Strategic Policy Statement will be a high-level document setting out the Scottish Government’s approach and policies for carer support across a range of Ministerial portfolios. As such, it is not intended to announce or form the basis for new policy. We expect the document to be helpful for those working at local and national level to inform strategic planning and policy development.

To develop the draft document, we have undertaken extensive engagement with partners. Feedback about the purpose and value of such a document has been positive.

To allow time to properly address the helpful feedback from this extended engagement, we now plan to publically consult on the draft document this autumn. We are also planning a stakeholder event in October to allow those with an interest in the document to find out more and provide feedback.

We expect to publish the final Carers Strategic Policy Statement in spring 2020, subject to feedback from the consultation.