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: S5O-04058

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making on delivering a soft opt-out organ donation system, following the passing of the Human Tissue (Authorisation) (Scotland) Act 2019.

Question reference: S5F-03878

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 20 January 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 23 January 2020

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to figures from Oxfam Scotland, which estimate that the value of unpaid care work across the country is £36 billion.

Question reference: S5W-26874

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government on what date it (a) formally requested and (b) received a response from the DWP regarding the data of families with children over six for the purposes of paying the Scottish Child Payment; whether this request was made at ministerial or official level, and what plans it has to publish the response.

On 14 June Scottish Government officials commissioned a feasibility study from the Department for Work and Pensions, to explore the implications of the Scottish Child Payment for both organisations, including the interfaces that would be required between them. DWP responded in writing at official level on 6 August confirming that they would not provide the Scottish Government with data for 6-16 year olds until nearer 2022. The then Secretary of State Amber Rudd confirmed this on 15 August in a letter to myself.

There has since been further discussion of the issue on a number of occasions at both official and ministerial level, including at the Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare in November 2019. We have still to receive a response from DWP as to when they will be in a position to provide us with this data.

Minutes for the Joint Ministerial Working Group on Welfare are publicly available on the gov.scot website. The Scottish Government has no current plans to publish the other correspondence referred to.

Question reference: S5W-26876

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 17 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what constraints it has identified that might prevent the fortnightly payment of the Scottish Child Payment.

As we set out in the position paper published on 4 October 2019, more frequent payments would pose a greater risk for Social Security Scotland's operations. The more frequent the payment, the greater the volume of transactions required each week by the agency, with consequent higher resource requirements.

At a time when there is ongoing introduction of the devolved benefits, and given that the Scottish Child Payment will be one of the first high-volume, recurring benefits, we have to balance ensuring the greatest impact for individuals, while protecting as far as possible the existing programme and the capacity of Social Security Scotland to deliver this new benefit and the other devolved benefits. We have, however, committed to exploring fortnightly payments further following full roll-out of the Scottish Child Payment.

Question reference: S5W-26867

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20766 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 January 2019, whether it will provide an update regarding what proportion of the processes are (a) automated and (b) manual, and what the staff time is per claim for manual processes for all payments made by Social Security Scotland.

Social Security Scotland is now delivering Best Start Grant including the Food element, Funeral Support Payment and Young Carer Grant. Each benefit requires the verification of evidence prior to processing an application. These verifications are dependent on the information provided by the client, the benefit type and in, specific circumstance, the information provided by other Government Departments or other providers. As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we have delivered further automations to improve the processing of applications. However, the use of these verification’s is dependent on varying factors within each client’s journey. The Agency are not currently gathering the staff time per claim for manual processes for all payments.

Question reference: S5W-26870

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-25158 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2019, whether it will provide an update on how many additional staff Social Security Scotland expects to recruit in (a) total and (b) each band to support the delivery of the Scottish Child Payment, and what it estimates the overall cost of these additional staff will be.

Social Security Scotland takes a holistic approach to recruitment and as such we anticipate that new staff members who will support delivery of Scottish Child Payment will work across multiple benefits. The number of people working on Scottish Child Payment will therefore fluctuate with client demand and the broader requirements of the organisation.

Social Security Scotland continues to build capacity across all operational areas and grades to support the delivery of existing benefits and the introduction of Scottish Child Payment and disability benefits this year.

Question reference: S5W-26869

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-25151 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2019, whether the costs have changed since the Discovery phase of the Scottish Child Payment design was completed and, if so, whether it will set out these changes.

Question reference: S5W-26868

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2020
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-25151 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 September 2019, whether it will provide a breakdown of what the cost is in terms of (a) staffing, (b) IT, (c) payment systems and (d) payments to the DWP, and what proportion of costs it expects to be attributed to activity in (i) Social Security Scotland and the (ii) Social Security Programme.

Question reference: S5W-26697

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the vacancy rate is in (a) its social security directorate and (b) Social Security Scotland.

There is no industry standard definition of vacancy rate. A reasonable measure is to compare the number of budgeted posts against the number of posts filled, however, there are alternative methods which are recognised as being equally valid, and as such may not be comparable with figures provided by other areas of the Scottish Government.

Social Security Directorate	Budgeted Posts filled
30 November 2019	99.8%

Social Security Scotland	Budgeted Posts filled
30 November 2019	104.9%

Social Security Scotland is required to balance its budget in 2019-20, across all categories of agency expenditure. Current forecasts indicate that the agency will balance its budget in 2019- 20.

Question reference: S5W-26700

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 December 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 January 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many roles in Social Security Scotland it has advertised for employment in (a) Dundee House, Dundee, (b) High Street, Glasgow, (c) local government sites and (d) other Scottish Government premises.

The data you have requested is not available by office location. However, it is possible to provide information regarding the geographical locations where posts were advertised on the Scottish Government recruitment website.

Between the inception of the Agency on 1st September 2018 and 31 September 2019 Social Security Scotland advertised the following posts:

	Location	Posts
(a)	Dundee only	97
(b)	Glasgow only	265
(c)	Dundee and/or Glasgow	153
(d)	Edinburgh and/or Glasgow	3
(e)	Other Scottish Locations	98

The figures provided above do not include any posts advertised prior to the establishment of the Agency on 1 September 2018. This includes the first rounds of recruitment of over 100 staff into the Dundee Headquarters.

Some roles may have been advertised on more than one occasion or in different ways therefore the total number of posts advertised does not equate to an Agency headcount figure.