Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-20750

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) members of staff and (b) volunteers it expects Citizens Advice Scotland to commit to the delivery of the Financial Health Check service.

To deliver the Financial Health Check service Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) has employed 5.5 FTE staff:

1 Project Manager
1.5 x Co-ordinator
2 x Administrator
1 IT support

CAS has also committed additional staff support from its Senior Management Team, Communications, Marketing and Quality Assurance.

In addition, 12 telephony advisers have been employed by local Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB) to provide the national telephony support.

We do not yet hold final information on the number of local CAB staff and volunteers providing the face to face support.

Question reference: S5W-20755

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it or Citizens Advice Scotland is responsible for advertising and promoting the Financial Health Check service; what advertising and promotional work has been agreed as part of the agreement with Citizens Advice Scotland to deliver the service; how frequently this work is to be delivered, and how much of the £3.3 million funding committed to the service over two years is to be used for advertising and promoting the service.

Both the Scottish Government and Citizens Advice network in Scotland are responsible for advertising and promoting the service. The Scottish Government will undertake a national marketing campaign week commencing 7 January 2019 to raise awareness of the service. The funding for the Scottish Government’s national marketing campaign is in addition to the £3.3 million funding committed.

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) will also undertake marketing work and local marketing and engagement with local partners will be undertaken by local Citizens Advice Bureau. CAS is currently developing their plans on this.

Question reference: S5W-20756

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what it estimates the cost per check will be for its Financial Health Check service.

Question reference: S5W-20746

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many financial health checks have been conducted under its Financial Health Check service, also broken down by (a) local authority and (b) citizens advice bureau.

Question reference: S5W-20757

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what procurement process was conducted for the provision of its Financial Health Check service.

Question reference: S5O-02780

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to statistics stating that eligible pensioners in Motherwell and Airdrie received double the number of cold weather payments as those in Bellshill and Coatbridge in 2017-18.

Question reference: S5W-20548

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many recruitment panels that (a) it and (b) each of its agencies (i) organised in 2017-18 and (ii) have organised since April 2018 contained no panel member who identified as (A) female, (B) disabled, (C) black or minority ethnic and (D) LGBTI.

We do not record the number of interview panels constituted within the Scottish Government or within its agencies, or the protected characteristics of panel membership.

With reference to both internal and external vacancies for directly employed staff, the Scottish Government and its agencies managed 1,559 vacancies in 2017-18 and 1,617 vacancies from April 2018 to 18 December 2018. Some vacancies are not filled at the first attempt, so the number of interview panels in each of these years will be higher than the number of vacancies managed in those years.

We strive to be as diverse as possible with respect to the membership of our interview panels. The Scottish Government’s recruitment process complies in full with the Civil Service Commissioners’ requirements in respect to selection being based on merit and fair and open competition. These requirements do not require the protected characteristics of panel members to be monitored or reported.

We are especially keen to promote a gender balance, and our guidance states: “the panel should be gender balanced, where practicable (where not practicable you should be able to evidence steps taken to achieve this)”.

Question reference: S5W-20549

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many recruitment panels that (a) it and (b) each of its agencies (i) organised in 2017-18 and (ii) have organised since April 2018 had panel members who identified as (A) female, (B) disabled, (C) black or minority ethnic and (D) LGBTI, and how many have a protected characteristic, broken down by characteristic.

We do not record the number of interview panels constituted within the Scottish Government or within its agencies, or the protected characteristics of panel membership.

With reference to both internal and external vacancies for directly employed staff, the Scottish Government and its agencies managed 1,559 vacancies in 2017-18 and 1,617 vacancies from April 2018 to 18 December 2018. Some vacancies are not filled at the first attempt, so the number of interview panels in each of these years will be higher than the number of vacancies managed in those years.

We strive to be as diverse as possible with respect to the membership of our interview panels. The Scottish Government’s recruitment process complies in full with the Civil Service Commissioners’ requirements in respect to selection being based on merit and fair and open competition. These requirements do not require the protected characteristics of panel members to be monitored or reported.

We are especially keen to promote a gender balance, and our guidance states: “the panel should be gender balanced, where practicable (where not practicable you should be able to evidence steps taken to achieve this)”.

Question reference: S5W-20550

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many of (a) its and (b) each if its agencies staff are qualified to participate on recruitment panels; how many of these people identify as (i) female, (ii) disabled, (iii) black or minority ethnic and (iv) LGBTI, and how many have a protected characteristic, broken down by characteristic.

We do not record the number of interview panel members that are qualified to participate, or the protected characteristics of those that are qualified to participate.

Interview panel members should have undertaken all the appropriate training. All panel members should have completed unconscious bias diversity training and it is preferable that all panel members be trained in competency based interviewing - if this is not possible at least one panel member must be trained. In addition, all panels dealing with between band promotions should be chaired by a qualified Lead Panel Member. Lead Panel Members receive role specific training and induction.

The Scottish Government’s recruitment process complies in full with the Civil Service Commissioners’ requirements in respect to selection being based on merit and fair and open competition.

Question reference: S5W-20761

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide a substantive answer to question S5W-20261, which received a holding response on 13 December 2018.

Chamber and committees