Chamber and committees

Information regarding staffing, including disability assistance and assessments, is available in the Outline Business Case for the Social Security Agency in Scotland published in April 2017, which is based on existing service design in DWP (https://www.gov.scot/publications/outline-business-case-agency-social-security-scotland/ ). The Social Security Programme is currently developing its own service design for disability assistance, including roles such as case managers.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-23034 on 16 May 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.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-23033 on 16 May 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 .

No formal dates for any discussions to begin and conclude have been agreed with IBM.

In order to extend the contract, the Scottish Government would need to give IBM at least one month’s notice prior to the initial end date. Any discussions would need to take place in sufficient time to support this deadline.

The analysis of responses to the Disability Assistance consultation will be used to inform our approach to assessing mobility for Disability Assistance for Working Age People. Any modelling required will be carried out at the appropriate time in order to assist in the policy development process. The Scottish Government is committed to co-designing our Disability Assistance provision with disabled people and disabled people’s organisations.

The review of the social security finance functions is part of our ongoing business and continuous improvement approach. The review is being carried out by a Scottish Government official and no additional costs have been incurred.

We are committed to the safe and secure transition of cases so that at the point when an individual transitions to a devolved benefit, they will receive at least the same amount as they received from the equivalent reserved benefit.

In order to extend the contract, the Scottish Government would need to give IBM at least one month’s notice prior to the initial end date. Any programme decision to extend the contract would need to be taken in sufficient time to support this deadline.

There are no plans to re-procure the contract.

Table 1 shows the mean and median disability pay gap for a) Scottish Government core and b) the agencies for which it holds pay data. Data for the Scottish Housing Regulator, the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) and Revenue Scotland has been withheld, due to the small number of staff within these organisations that have self-declared a disability, and the challenges that this would represent in preserving anonymity for those who have self-declared a disability.

For the purposes of this table, pay includes both salary and on-going allowances such as pay supplements, but does not include overtime. Part-time staff are reckoned at their full-time equivalent salary.

Table 1

As employment law is currently reserved, the Scottish Government cannot oblige employers in the third and private sector to report their disability pay gaps. However, the Scottish Government is committed to working with stakeholders to deliver improvements in equality. In December last year, we published ‘A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan’ , which, among other things, sets out our ambition to work with employers to support them in recruiting and retaining disabled people. The plan was developed in close collaboration with disabled people’s organisations, and the third sector.

The plan also commits the Scottish Government to showing leadership in this issue, that is why this year we will publish a Recruitment and Retention plan, setting out the actions we will take as an employer to support disabled people in the workplace. Upon publication, we will share learning from this experience to encourage other organisations to follow our example.