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-20910

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 11 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many items listed in the Social Security Programme Board Dashboard, which forms the basis of the Social Security Programme Board Programme Director Progress Report, released under FoI/18/02096, were given a red RAG status, and what these red RAG status items were.

Programme Board Dashboards are part of routine reporting, and as such any RAG statuses are provided for internal discussion and not made public, on the grounds that doing so would inhibit substantially the free and frank exchange of views for the purposes of deliberation. The Programme Director’s Update is used to enable critical discussion that in turn supports the delivery of social security for Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-20856

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20346 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 December 2018, what assessment it has made of the indirect implementation of the DWP Verify Earnings and Pensions service as part of its agency arrangements agreement for the DWP to deliver carers allowance, and what the outcome was.

The Scottish Government entered into this agreement in order to deliver the Carer’s Allowance Supplement by summer 2018. This provides over 75,000 carers with an additional £442 in 2018-19, an increase of 13% on the DWP’s Carer’s Allowance. All aspects of the Carer’s Allowance Agency Agreement with DWP were subject to scrutiny and approval by the Social Security Programme Boards and Scottish Ministers. The DWP is clear that Fraud, Error and Debt arrangements associated with the Agreement and the operational model needs to remain consistent throughout Great Britain.

Question reference: S5W-20850

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20557 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 January 2019, what format the release of the statistics will take, and how it will detail whether a child is the third or greater in a family.

Official statistics, covering the first months of applications for the Best Start Grant, will be published in April 2019. More-detailed analysis will be published in a quarterly publication series starting from August 2019. In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, care will be taken to ensure that these publications are produced to a level of quality that meets users’ needs. Published data will be subject to disclosure control methods to protect the confidentiality of the data.

Question reference: S5W-20851

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20557 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 January 2019, on what date the statistics will be released, and for what reason the date is not listed in the document, Official Statistics - Forthcoming Publications.

Question reference: S5W-20829

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20404 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 December 2018, what the estimated risk is of Social Security Scotland being the target of fraud and organised crime beyond matters of public protection.

Our assessment of the risk posed to Social Security Scotland by Serious and Organised Crime Groups takes place on an ongoing basis, and we have been consulting with experts and relevant organisations to understand these risks and to design responsive control measures. Further detail relating to this assessment is highly sensitive and cannot be shared in the public domain, however the agency’s Counter Fraud Strategy published in September 2018 outlines at high level the methods employed to adequately assess and mitigate the risk of fraud perpetrated by both internal and external threat actors, including that posed by Serious and Organised Crime Groups.

Question reference: S5W-20816

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20404 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 December 2018, whether it remains its position that the sole role of Police Scotland, as set out at section 5.4 of its document, Social Security Programme - Programme Blueprint, which was published under the freedom of information request, FoI/18/02106, is to "liaise with the agency on matters relating to fraud, organised crime and other areas" and, if so, for what reason this is not referred to in the response.

The original PQ referred to where Police Scotland would act as a Delivery Partner. We have no definition of a Delivery Partner.

However we have been clear that we anticipate that the Counter Fraud function within the Agency will participate in formal intelligence sharing networks (other participants include Police Scotland, HMRC, DWP and many other government departments) and/or collaborative investigations where appropriate. This position is reflected in the Counter Fraud Strategy published September 2018.

Social Security Scotland’s Counter Fraud team are a Specialist Reporting Agency. This means the agency has civilian investigation officers able to investigate allegations relating to the benefit offences introduced by the Social Security Act 2018 to criminal investigation standard, including direct submission of crime reports to the Crown Office for consideration of prosecution action. Police Scotland have the remit to investigate and report alleged criminal activity of any kind, which could include these offences, however should they decide to undertake such an investigation it would not constitute a service provision arrangement.

Question reference: S5W-20858

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20346 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 December 2018, how it defines the "practical implementation" of the DWP Verify Earnings and Pensions service, and whether it has considered, assessed or agreed any future implementation.

Practical implementation would be the use of DWP Verify Earnings and Pensions service in the delivery of a devolved benefit. I refer the member to the answer to questions S5W-20346 and S5W-20857 on 17 January 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 .

Question reference: S5W-20857

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20346 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 December 2018, what (a) direct and (b) indirect decisions have been made about the implementation of the DWP Verify Earnings and Pensions service.

Question reference: S5W-20835

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20546 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 December 2018, whether it will publish each of the three reviews.

Gateway Reviews are conducted for the Scottish Government and associated public sector organisations to help support the successful delivery of programmes and projects by ensuring that good programme and project management practice is being used; that key risks are actively managed and to identify any learning points for better practice.

The reports are confidential to the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO).

Question reference: S5W-20859

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to S5W-20616 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 January 2019, whether it remains its position, as set out at section 1.3 of its document, Social Security Programme - Disability Benefits Assessments Strategic Outline Case, which was published under the freedom of information request, FoI/18/03113, that "the assumption is that the disability benefit rules and structures will remain broadly the same", and, if so, for what reason this is not referred to in the response.

While our working assumption for planning purposes is that the rules and structures will remain broadly the same, no final decisions have been taken; we will continue to look for opportunities to improve these, provided the changes do not risk the safe and secure transition of devolved disability assistance. As previously stated, we have already identified a number of areas for improvement and are co-designing these with people with experience of the current system so that we can build a system which better meets the needs of individuals.