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-19666

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people applied to be on Social Security Scotland's Executive Advisory Body, and how many had a protected characteristic, broken down by characteristic.

Social Security Scotland received 41 applications for positions on its Executive Advisory Body. The following tables reflect what candidates have declared in our Equalities Monitoring forms in relation to protected characteristics.

Please note that counts of less than 5 have been suppressed and shown as * to prevent the possible disclosure of information about individuals. Secondary data suppression has also been necessary to prevent the calculation of the suppressed values by differencing (also shown as *)
‎

Age Group:

16-29	30-39	40-49	50-54	55-59	60+	Prefer not to Say
0	*	8	*	12	12	1

Disability Statistics:

Yes	No	Unknown
16	19	6

Ethnic Group:

White	Ethnic Minority	Prefer not to say
*	*	1

‘White’ group includes Scottish; Other British; Irish; Gypsy/Traveller; Polish; Other White.

‘Ethnic Minority’ group includes Mixed or Multiple Ethnic Groups; Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British; African, Caribbean or Black; Other Ethnic Group.

Religion :

None	Christian	Other	Prefer not to say	Unknown
17	17	*	1	*

‘Christian’ includes Church of Scotland; Roman Catholic; Other Christian.

‘Other’ includes Muslim; Buddhist; Sikh; Jewish; Hindu; Another religion.

Gender Statistics:

Female	Male	Prefer not to say
20	20	1

Sexual Orientation:

LGBTI	Heterosexual	Prefer not to say	Unknown
*	36	*	*

Question reference: S5W-19404

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has instructed the DWP, under its agency agreement, not to recover, fine or prosecute a recipient of carer's allowance whose earnings have breached the earnings threshold.

Question reference: S5W-19461

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-19091 and S5W-19090 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 October 2018, what the individual cost is per payment of (a) carer's allowance delivered by the DWP and (b) carer's allowance supplement delivered by Social Security Scotland, and which of these is more cost-effective.

It is not appropriate to compare cost per payment for delivery of Carer’s Allowance and Carer’s Allowance Supplement to eligible carers in Scotland, as these are not like for like.

DWP administer Carer’s Allowance on behalf of Scottish Ministers under an Agency Agreement, and Social Security Scotland make payments of the Carer’s Allowance Supplement to eligible carers. Questions on (a) should be directed to DWP as there is currently no separate delivery arrangement in Scotland. Cost per payment of (b) are estimated to be in the region of £1.

Question reference: S5W-19506

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-15184 by Jeane Freeman on 22 March 2018, whether it has asked the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to take wind-chill into account for the payment of cold weather payments, and whether it has modelled how wind-chill could alter eligibility as part of its policy development.

We are aware that more extreme weather can be a factor affecting the warmth of some people’s homes, not least for communities living on islands and in remote rural areas. This is an issue that has been raised with the UK government over many years by Scottish Ministers and others.

In developing the new Cold Spell Heating Assistance benefit, we are engaging with households who have claimed the existing benefit and a wide range of expert opinion. http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=9940&i=91199 .

Question reference: S5W-19460

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-19090 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 October 2018, what the expected cost of delivery is of the carer's allowance supplement in future years, and whether the cost for 2018-19 includes one-off costs of delivery in the first year of payments being made.

The costs for Social Security Scotland to administer the Carer’s Allowance Supplement in 2019-20 are estimated to be in the region of £151,000. This does not include Social Security Scotland staffing costs. As per response to PQ S5W-19090, the £193,000 costs for 2018-19 include £43,000 one-off costs for the payment interface. Carer’s Allowance Supplement is an interim solution to deliver the Scottish Government commitment of increasing payment of Carer’s Allowance to the level of Job Seeker’s Allowance from 2018-19. The supplement will cease in due course, once regulations under section 28 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 have been made to provide a scheme for assistance to carers. That scheme will provide for payments at the increased rate.

Question reference: S5W-19206

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many carer's allowance supplement payments it has made in each week since 3 September 2018.

Question reference: S5W-19403

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will instruct the DWP, under its agency agreement, to increase the carer's allowance earnings threshold to match the (a) national living wage at 16 hours per week or (b) real living wage at 16 hours per week while the agreement remains in place.

In order to raise the level of Carer’s Allowance to Job Seeker’s Allowance, we introduced Carer's Allowance Supplement as a temporary measure until Carer’s Assistance is being fully delivered by the Scottish Government. This required us to take Executive Competence for Carer’s Allowance, whilst it is delivered under the terms of an Agency Agreement with DWP. The terms of this Agency Agreement stipulate that it will be delivered in Scotland consistently with its delivery in England and Wales. This means that the earnings threshold will remain the same in Scotland as it is in England and Wales in 2019-2020.

We will continue to work with stakeholders and our Experience Panel members to ensure that when Carer’s Assistance is fully delivered in Scotland, that it meets the needs of our carers and those they support.

Question reference: S5W-19402

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that recipients of carer's allowance may be prosecuted or fined where the DWP's Verify Earnings and Pensions system finds that the earnings threshold has been breached.

Carers play a vital role in our communities and I have contacted the UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to highlight my concerns about the impact of this action by DWP. I have sought reassurance that in the event of any debt recovery action, individual circumstances are taken into account and that people are not prosecuted who have made a genuine error and not knowingly sought to defraud the benefit.

Question reference: S5W-19726

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when sections 12, 13 and 14 of the Social Security Act 2018 will be commenced.

Question reference: S5W-19505

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 22 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-15184 by Jeane Freeman on 22 March 2018, whether it will ask the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to review its procedures regarding the mapping of weather stations in Scotland to ensure more accurate results.

Week Commencing	Payments Issued
10 September 2018	1,026
17 September 2018	15,109
24 September 2018	41,272
01 October 2018	19,317
15 October 2018	272
Total	76,996