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-15838

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 20 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what IT accessibility programmes it provides for its staff.

Ensuring equality of opportunity to enable people to join and move through the organisation is a key consideration within Scottish Government, including ensuring our people are able to access the equipment and environment required to allow them to contribute fully.

In addition to any accessibility features built into operating systems and standard software packages, the following software is classed as Assistive Technology and is currently available and for use on the Scottish Government’s IT network:

JAWS (version 18)

ZoomText (version 11)

Dragon Professional (version 15)

TextHelp (version 11.5)

Kurzweil 1000 (version 14.02)

MindGenius (version 6)

As new versions of these software packages are released then these will be made available.

Question reference: S5W-15798

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 19 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have universal credit self-employment status for the purposes of council tax reduction calculations, and what statistical information (a) it and (b) local authorities collect regarding this.

Question reference: S5W-15796

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 19 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact of the universal credit minimum income floor will be on council tax reduction claims where the discretion under Regulation 3 of the Council Tax Reduction (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2018 is not used.

Question reference: S5W-15797

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 19 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact of the universal credit minimum income floor will be for (a) claimants, (b) local authorities and (c) the scheme.

Question reference: S5W-15837

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 06 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether the re-use of the Department for Work and Pensions Central Payment System to make payment of all social security assistance is compatible with the IT accessibility programmes that its staff use, and whether it will provide a full list of programmes that the system can be used with.

Access by Social Security Scotland staff to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Central Payments System (CPS) will be via backend API (application programming interface) calls which take place ‘system to system’ as opposed to a member of staff accessing the CPS system directly on screen. Therefore, Social Security Scotland staff would not require any accessibility programs they use to be compatible with DWP’s Central Payments System in itself.

Question reference: S5W-15424

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14366 by Derek Mackay on 20 February 2018, whether it has achieved a resolution with UK Government officials regarding the complex interaction between Scottish income tax policy and entitlement to universal credit.

Question reference: S5W-15427

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14366 by Derek Mackay on 20 February 2018, how many people receiving universal credit (a) are currently and (b) will be affected by the complex interaction between Scottish income tax policy and entitlement to universal credit by the end of 2018-19.

The Scottish Government does not have access to the data required to provide robust estimates and has asked the UK Government to share its data. The majority of current UC claimant households will not be affected by the interaction at all because they will not include any individuals who pay income tax. The size of the portion who are affected will depend on the pattern of UC rollout and migration.

The latest Department for Work and Pensions statistics indicate there are 65,000 Scottish households in receipt of Universal Credit as of December 2017. Based on the latest forecast data shared with us by DWP, we estimate that there would be around 150,000 Scottish households in receipt of Universal Credit by the end of the 2018-19 tax year but very few of these will include individuals who pay income tax. Some households will receive more UC as a result of paying more income tax. It is not yet possible to determine whether this will result in a net gain (or a net loss) for the UK or Scottish Governments.

Question reference: S5W-15429

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-14366 and S5W-14367 by Derek Mackay on 20 February 2018, what estimated savings in universal credit payments the UK Government will make in 2018-19 as a result of the Scottish starter rate of income tax, and whether the Scottish Government will receive a transfer from the UK Government as outlined in paragraph 45 of the Fiscal Framework.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15427 on 18 April 2018, the Scottish Government does not currently have access to the data required to estimate the overall impact of income tax changes on Universal Credit expenditure in Scotland.

Some households will receive more UC as a result of paying more income tax. It is not yet possible to determine whether this will result in a net gain (or a net loss) for the UK or Scottish Governments.

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-15426

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14366 by Derek Mackay on 20 February 2018, whether it has requested that any resolution with UK Government officials regarding the complex interaction between Scottish income tax policy and entitlement to universal credit should take the form of (a) a disregard of the net benefit of the starter rate of income tax for the calculation of universal credit or (b) a supplementary payment of universal credit.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-15424 on 18 April 2018. 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 , and the answer to S5O-01937 on 28 March 2018 which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=11450&i=104015&c=2079481#ScotParlOR .

Question reference: S5W-15423

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-14366 and S5W-14367 by Derek Mackay on 20 February 2018, whether the complex interaction between Scottish income tax policy and entitlement to universal credit is being considered with the UK Government in relation to paragraphs (a) 44 to 53 and (b) 89 and 90 of the Fiscal Framework.

The Scottish and UK Governments are considering this issue in relation to the no detriment provisions of the Fiscal Framework.

Paragraphs 89 and 90 relate specifically to welfare benefits introduced by the Scottish Government. These provisions do not apply for the purposes of Scottish income tax policy.