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-06257

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 31 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many households that include children have made new Council Tax Reduction claims since 1 May 2016 and how many were approved.

Question reference: S5W-06219

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff its Social Security Directorate has employed in each month since May 2016.

Social Security Directorate was established in July 2016. The following table provides the relevant information from that period onwards. 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 third party and not employed by the Scottish Government.

Full time equivalent staff (directly employed - permanent and fixed term, modern apprentice and inward loans)

DIRECTORATE FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

31-07-2016	31-08-2016	30-09-2016	31-10-2016	30-11-2016	31-12-2016
fte	fte	fte	fte	fte	fte
51.8	52.1	54.1	59.1	65.1	66.7

Question reference: S5W-06218

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when it will begin delivery of a financial health check service, and how much funding this service will require.

Question reference: S5W-06269

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the cost to the Department for Work and Pensions of administering funeral payments in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-06217

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government which organisations it has funded to provide income maximisation projects in each year since 2011.

Question reference: S5W-06215

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has provided to local government to fund income maximisation projects in each year since 2011.

The majority of revenue funding for local authorities is being provided by means of a block grant. The total block grant settlement for 2016-17 was over £10.3 billion. Individual local authorities are responsible for the management of their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. Many local authorities will allocate local funding to the provision of income maximisation advice. Analysis of local authority expenditure on money advice in 2015-16 was published by the Improvement Service in January 2017. The data and reports can be found at: http://www.improvementservice.org.uk/2015-16-report.html.

The Scottish Government also provides some additional funding to local authorities for income maximisation advice projects through a number of programmes administered by the Scottish Legal Aid Board. The programmes support the provision of advice to assist people in Scotland affected by debt, the UK government’s welfare changes and the economic downturn. They are jointly funded by the Scottish Government and Money Advice Service. Further information about the programmes can be found at: http://www.slab.org.uk/providers/advice/grant-funding/.

The following table sets out the funding that has been distributed to local authorities by the Scottish Legal Aid Board using joint funding from both the Scottish Government and the Money Advice Service. The amounts represented reflect spend on both projects which are directly led by a local authority and projects where a local authority is acting as a project partner.

Local Authority	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16	2016-17*	TOTAL
Aberdeen City Council	-	-	£46,143.99	£72,053.95	£110,539.71	£93,809.68	£322,547.33
Angus Council	-	-	£46,246.66	£20,267.30	£53,632.45	£52,750.30	£172,896.71
City of Edinburgh Council	-	-	£71,921.01	£74,819.29	£97,343.96	£52,250.07	£296,334.32
Clackmannanshire Council	-	-	£75,770.74	£68,416.25	£34,221.25	£10,635.83	£189,044.07
East Ayrshire Council	£62,741.29	£75,241.44	£63,706.52	£46,759.74	£83,209.03	£61,212.70	£392,870.71
East Dunbartonshire Council	-	-	£52,342.67	£62,766.44	£70,294.52	£58,968.29	£244,371.93
East Lothian Council	-	-	£31,765.01	£36,333.64	£55,520.90	£22,852.33	£146,471.88
Falkirk Council	-	-	£54,569.70	£58,294.67	£86,516.25	£67,464.60	£266,845.22
Glasgow City Council	-	-	£147,178.34	£120,883	£215,306	£150,462.46	£633,829.80
Highland Council	-	-	£67,140.02	£69,002.95	£97,942.24	£73,367.53	£307,452.75
Inverclyde	-	-	£82,608.84	£63,040.90	£110,234.33	£88,700.85	£344,584.92
Moray Council	-	-	£36,232.99	£25,578.77	£46,007.95	£41,051.89	£148,871.59
North Ayrshire Council	-	-	£12,038.00	£65,653.76	£64,823.80	£38,918.05	£181,433.61
North Lanarkshire Council	-	-	£129,953.07	£163,405.29	£253,945.56	£188,624.86	£735,928.78
Perth and Kinross Council	-	-	£58,556.67	£64,625.37	£81,506.20	£65,626.19	£270,314.43
Renfrewshire Council	-	-	£155,497.41	£106,405.47	£196,263.71	£175,283.89	£633,450.48
South Lanarkshire Council	-	-	£81,242.25	£116,249.22	£118,342.53	£84,846.18	£400,680.18
Stirling Council	-	-	£46,513.17	£16,942.25	£64,461.97	£41,295.59	£169,212.98
West Lothian Council	£64,040.53	£108,382.92	£88,837.95	£118,345.09	£222,579.37	£151,046.96	£753,232.81
Total	£126,781.82	£183,624.36	£1,348,265.01	£1,369,843.35	£2,062,691.72	£1,519,168.26	£6,610,374.52

*includes forecast spend

Question reference: S5W-06216

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 30 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on grants to third party organisations to fund income maximisation projects in each year since 2011.

The Scottish Government is committed to building a fairer nation and tackling deprivation, poverty and inequality. As a result income maximisation projects are funded from across a wide range of portfolios and it is not possible to obtain full answers to the questions without incurring disproportionate cost.

The information provided below is the best available at this time. It is drawn from a review that the Scottish Government is currently undertaking of its support to advice services. There is no standard definition of an advice service so for the purposes of the review we have defined an advice service as an organisation that provides independent advice to individuals on:

Income maximisation, including access to publicly provided financial entitlements; and/or

Statutory civil rights, including how to seek recourse if those rights are not upheld

This definition excludes services that provide support on skills development (for example, employability services), emotional matters (for example counselling services) or business development. We have also excluded legal aid funding with the exception of the money made available through the Legal Aid Fund for civil Advice and Assistance, including Assistance by Way of Representation.

The review has found that over £40 million of funding was provided for this advice provision in 2016-17. Of this total funding, the review has estimated that around
£13 million is directly attributable to advice projects that aim to maximise household incomes – either by increasing access to financial entitlements or reducing outgoings on costs such as energy. This total excludes projects that provide an element of income maximisation advice as part of a broader provision as it is not possible to proportion the amount of funding attributable to income maximisation work. The total amount of Scottish Government funding supporting this income maximisation work can therefore reasonably be expected to be higher than this stated figure. Further funding will also be directed to income maximisation projects as a result of block grants to local authorities and health boards

The primary recipients of this funding are set out in the following table:

Recipient	Estimated total amount of Scottish Government funding received in 2016-17	What the funding provides for
Citizens Advice network direct grants	£2 million	Provision of generalist advice in relation to money, benefits, debt, etc.
Scottish Legal Aid Board	£4 million	Support of 102 advice projects supporting people affected by welfare changes, debt and the economic downturn. A full list of projects can be found at: http://www.slab.org.uk/providers/advice/grant-funding/
Energy Savings Trust	£4.6 million	Provision of energy efficiency advice to support all Scottish households to reduce fuel bills and make their homes warmer and more comfortable. Fuel poor households receive additional support including referrals for benefit checks and help accessing Government and other energy efficiency schemes which provide heating and insulation at no or low cost. Referrals can be made to other sources of support including money and debt advice and energy advocacy projects.
Other third sector organisations	£2.4 million	Range of projects providing advice in relation to money, benefits and debt. Provision of training to money advisers. Recipients include Child Poverty Action Group, Macmillan, Money Advice Scotland and One Parent Families Scotland.
TOTAL	£13 million

The 2017-18 Draft Budget contains a clear commitment to continue to support advice provision for people on low incomes. Funding decisions will be announced in due course.

Question reference: S5W-06362

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether executive competence is required to deliver the Maternity and Early Years’ Allowance.

Yes, executive competence would be needed to deliver all aspects of the Best Start Grant (formally Maternity and Early Years Allowance). Following the Scotland Act 2016, UK Ministers could transfer their executive competence for maternity payments under existing legislation but Scottish Ministers would still require primary legislation to provide them with executive competence to make the second and school payments of the Best Start Grant. Powers to allow the Scottish Ministers to create the full BSG will, therefore, form part of the Social Security Bill, to be introduced before the end of this parliamentary term.

Question reference: S5W-06270

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many funeral payments are made in Scotland each year.

Question reference: S5O-00572

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when the Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare will next meet and what will be discussed.