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-06917

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government on what date the recruitment process for the social security experience panels opened.

Question reference: S5W-07173

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06219 by Jeane Freeman on 30 January 2017, what the gender breakdown is of these staff, and how many are disabled.

When providing data on diversity characteristics headcount is used. Staffing information for related PQ reference S5W-06219 was on an FTE basis, which explains the differing totals. The grouping “directly employed” - used to present our Official statistics and staffing reports to the Office for National Statistics - excludes staff who are employed by a 3^rd party and not employed by the Scottish Government.

Headcount (directly employed - permanent and fixed term, Modern Apprentice and Inward loans)

31-07-2016

31-08-2016

30-09-2016

31-10-2016

30-11-2016

31-12-2016

DIRECTORATE FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

Female	30	30	32	37	42	43
Male	24	24	24	24	25	26
All	54	54	56	61	67	69



31-07-2016	31-08-2016	30-09-2016	31-10-2016	30-11-2016	31-12-2016

DIRECTORATE FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

Disabled	*	*	*	*	7	7
Not Disabled	28	28	27	31	32	31
Prefer not to say	*	*	*	*	2	2
Unknown	22	21	24	24	26	29
All	54	54	56	61	67	69

To prevent possible disclosure of sensitive information about individuals, headcounts of less than five have been suppressed and shown as * in the table. (Except in cases where 'prefer not to say' is the only value less than five.) In cases where suppression has been required, it is also necessary to suppress a second value to prevent disclosure of the suppressed value by subtraction.

Question reference: S5W-07172

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the test for absolute poverty in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill is reliant on net household income for the financial year 2010-11.

The absolute poverty target measures whether the poorest families are seeing their incomes rise over time (in real terms). It requires a choice of baseline year that is both sufficiently recent to reflect contemporary living standards and sufficiently far in the past to allow meaningful change to occur over time.

The Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill initially sets the baseline year for the absolute child poverty target as 2010-11 – the baseline used in the UK Child Poverty Act 2010 – but allows for the base year to be adjusted to better reflect contemporary living standards in advance of the target year 2030-31.

Question reference: S5W-06728

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what target it uses for reducing the rate of disability poverty.

The Scottish Government does not have a specific disability poverty target rate.

However our delivery plan ‘A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People’ sets out five long term ambitions aimed at changing the lives of disabled people in Scotland and ensuring that human rights are realised.

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/12/3778

The plan sets out 93 actions which will be taken forward during the current parliamentary term, and includes halving the employment gap between disabled people and the rest of the working age population; setting a target to increase the percentage of disabled people in the public sector workforce; and increasing supply of wheelchair accessible housing.

Question reference: S5O-00697

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 23 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have applied to join the social security experience panels, and how many have been accepted.

As I referenced in my statement to Parliament, I will announce more details on the Experience Panels in the next few weeks.

In advance of recruitment launching, those interested in taking part can email the Scottish Government researchers who are setting up the panels at [email protected]. Details of those who have contacted us have been stored securely, and individuals will be
re-contacted with more information about how to register for the Panels when recruitment launches.

Question reference: S5F-00910

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 February 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 February 2017

To ask the First Minister for what reason the wealth gap between rich and poor in Scotland is widening.

Question reference: S5W-07115

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 20 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06495 by Angela Constance on 6 February 2017, when it will publish the minutes of (a) the meeting of 15 December 2016 and (b) all other fuel poverty forum meetings that have taken place since April 2016.

The minutes of the Fuel Poverty Forum meeting held on 16 December 2016 will be approved at the next meeting of the Fuel Poverty Forum to be held on 20 April and will be published on the Scottish Government website thereafter.

The Scottish Fuel Poverty Forum minutes of 27 April 2016 and 24 August 2016 are available on the Scottish Government’s website: https://beta.gov.scot/groups/fuel-poverty-forum/

Question reference: S5W-06727

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 20 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it records and reports on the disability poverty rate.

The disability poverty rate is published each year in the ‘Poverty equality analysis’ and ‘Characteristics of poverty’ analysis on the poverty statistics pages of the Scottish Government website: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/IncomePoverty. It is also subsequently published on the Equality Evidence Finder: http://www.gov.scot/Topics/People/Equality/Equalities/DataGrid.

An individual is identified as being in relative poverty if they are living in a household whose total equivalised household income (including all earnings, benefits, pensions etc.) is below 60% of the UK median (middle) household income in that year.

Disability poverty rates are published showing both the proportion of people in a family with a disabled adult who are in relative poverty and the proportion of people in a family with a disabled child who are in poverty.

More information on the way in which poverty rates are calculated can be found in the Poverty and Income Inequality in Scotland publication:http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/IncomePoverty

Question reference: S5W-06214

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 9 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether funding for a financial health check service was included in the 2017-18 draft budget.

There is a range of activity being driven across Scottish Government to promote and deliver greater financial inclusion for those facing financial challenges. The commitment to the financial health check service was set out in the Fairer Scotland Action Plan, which includes 50 actions to be delivered over this parliamentary term. We are currently working with partners to scope delivery of this service, and, while there is no specific budget line in the 2017-18 Budget for the commitment, we anticipate that activity to support it would be funded across a number of different budget lines, given the cross-cutting nature of the agenda.

Question reference: S5W-06495

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 6 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to recommendations 9 and 10 of the Scottish Fuel Poverty Strategic Working Group report, A Scotland without fuel poverty is a fairer Scotland, and by what date it will implement these.

The Scottish Government has welcomed publication of reports from both the Scottish Fuel Poverty Strategic Working Group and the Scottish Rural Fuel Poverty Task Force. Collectively, over 100 recommendations were made, many of which are complex and have wider implications that must be considered alongside other policies.

The Minister for Local Government and Housing attended a meeting of the Fuel Poverty Forum on 15 December to discuss the issues in more detail and we will publish our response in February 2017 to take on board their views.

Both reports are the first step in the development of our new fuel poverty strategy, which we will consult on later this year, and will inform our approach to improving the energy efficiency of people’s homes wherever they live in Scotland.