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-20753

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 the requirements are on Citizens Advice Scotland to report statistical information under its agreement to deliver the Financial Health Check service, and how frequently it is required to report this.

Question reference: S5W-20749

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 the minimum level of service is for the Financial Health Check service agreed with Citizens Advice Scotland.

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-20710

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason its draft social security charter has not been published, and by what date it will be.

Question reference: S5W-20658

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Social Security Scotland staff are based at (a) Dundee House, Dundee, (b) High Street, Glasgow, (c) Victoria Quay, Edinburgh, (d) St Andrew's House, Edinburgh, (e) Atlantic Quay, Glasgow and (f) other (i) Social Security Scotland and (ii) Scottish Government premises.

The Scottish social security system will be directly delivered by Social Security Scotland, through a local presence providing face-to-face advice, supported by administrative functions in our Dundee headquarters and Glasgow.

Location	Number of staff
Dundee House, Dundee (HQ)	141
High Street, Glasgow	108
Atlantic Quay, Glasgow	4
Victoria Quay, Edinburgh	2
Courtyard Falkirk	2
Kilwinning	1
Saughton House, Edinburgh	1
Stornoway	1

Nineteen Local Delivery Relationship Leads have been recruited and will now start detailed planning for how the service will be delivered in each local area. This service will launch when it is required for devolved benefits.

The Local Delivery Relationship Leads have initially been based in existing Scottish Government offices from which they will design the service.

Social Security Scotland will build up a network of locally based staff supporting people to apply for benefits across all 32 local authorities.

Question reference: S5W-20747

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 people have had a financial health check conducted (a) centrally by telephone and (b) locally in a citizens advice bureau.

Question reference: S5W-20752

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 the verified financial gain (VFG) of its Financial Health Check service is to date, and what the target VFG gain is for (a) 2018-19 and (b) 2019-20.

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-20764

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, further to the answer to question S5W-20403 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 December 2018, whether this has been progressed with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport; whether it considers that a cross-portfolio approach has satisfactorily been taken, and whether section 3 of the Social Security Act has been adequately satisfied by not placing an explicit requirement for NHS boards to provide applications to new mothers in hospital.

Ministers continue to work closely to ensure an effective cross-portfolio approach. Throughout the development and implementation of the Best Start Grant we have and will continue to engage with a range of stakeholders, service users and the wider public as well as colleagues from within Scottish Government.

Section 3 of the Social Security Act does not make specific requirements about the promotional activity to be undertaken; we believe it has been adequately satisfied by the work that has been done to maximise uptake of the Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment. The very high number of applications, especially online, is evidence that our messages are reaching people.

Question reference: S5W-20765

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 further to the answer to question S5W-20403 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 December 2018, for what reason promotion of the Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment was not fully embedded in NHS board maternity and health visiting pathways prior to the launch of the grant; whether it will commission work to report on the position of boards in relation to the approach to promotion in their individual areas, and what the earliest opportunity is that it can place an explicit requirement for them to provide applications to new mothers in hospital.

Our preference is to promote the Best Start Pregnancy and Baby Payment before the baby is born, in order to ensure that parents have access at the earliest opportunity. On the run up to the launch of the Pregnancy and Baby Payment, we ran a co-ordinated communications campaign, working with third sector organisations who support pregnant women and families, Health Boards and Local Authorities to get the message out about this new benefit and maximise uptake.

Over the coming months, we will do further evaluation of who has applied to try and identify if there are any groups that are underrepresented. We will take this into consideration to do everything that we can to encourage applications from parents and carers who may be eligible for this benefit.