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-23213

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that Social Security Scotland is staffed by an adequate number of permanent employees.

When considering our location(s) of our offices in Dundee and Glasgow, the Scottish Government undertook comprehensive analysis, part of this analysis was to consider the labour market and the ability to recruit for permanent posts within each location.

Social Security Scotland engage with third sector organisations and employability stakeholders across Scotland to raise awareness of their recruitment campaigns.

This has delivered successful outcomes in not only filling vacancies advertised, but also created some reserve lists for future recruitment campaigns.

Question reference: S5W-23228

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many hours overtime have been worked by (a) permanent, (b) temporary and (c) contract staff in the social security programme.

The following table shows hours of overtime claimed by permanent staff directly employed by the Scottish Government. We pay contractors a daily rate and therefore overtime does not apply. No overtime was claimed by temporary staff. The data provided is from May 2018 onwards which is from the first overtime claim we have recorded.

Month claim refers to	Hours and minutes claimed
May 18	6.12
June 18	50.54
July 18	27.36
August 18	119.54
September 18	112.12
October 18	150.18
November 18	92.00
December 18	147.12
March 19	20.00
April 19	15.00

Monday to Saturday overtime claims for programme management and delivery division directly employed permanent staff.

Month claim refers to	Hours and minutes claimed
May 18	5.60
June 18	8.42
July 18	11.12
August 18	18.24
September 18	8.18
October 18	37.48
November 18	2.00
December 18	21.18
January 19	27.00
February 19	4.42
April 19	5.00

Sunday overtime claims for programme management and delivery division directly employed permanent staff.

Permanent includes permanent, fixed term appointments with fair and open competition and modern apprentices.

Month claim refers to	Hours and minutes claimed
September 18	16.12
November 18	10.42

Public and Privilege overtime claims for programme management and delivery division directly employed permanent staff.

Question reference: S5W-23221

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the cost of implementing the delivery of digital infrastructure for the social security programme.

As detailed in the letter sent to the Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee (copied to the Social Security Committee) on 7 December 2017, please see the following table setting out current estimated IT costs for the social security programme, inclusive of VAT and the relevant levels of optimism bias.

Current Expected IT Costs

Component	Estimate Cost (£m)
Case Management Solution	33.3m
Telephony Solution	0.4m
Document Handling Solution	3.6m
Corporate Accounting Solution	0.9m
Payment Handling and Reconciliation Solution	42.1m
Knowledge Management Solution	0.4m
Identity Management Solution	7.2m
Reporting and Statistical Modelling Solution	0.3m
Data Feeds and Exchanges	4.5m
Online Presence	0.3m
Digital Access Solution	10.1m
Scottish Government IT On-boarding	15.0m
Scottish Government IT Infrastructure	17.1m
Development Environment	0.8m
Test Environment	18.0m
Protective Security	36.0m
Data Hosting	0.4m
Total	190.4m

Question reference: S5W-23208

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that decisions made through the social security programme are appropriately escalated or reported to the programme's board.

We can confirm, and as stated by the Auditor General the Public Affairs and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee meeting held 16 May 2019, that the Social Security Programme has well established and robust governance structures, processes and mechanisms in place to support decision making and facilitate the escalation of risks and issues as when appropriate.

The Programme continues to show a commitment to improving its governance, reflecting on its progress and learning lessons.

Question reference: S5W-23219

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress it is making in finalising the contracts with the DWP for continued delivery of some devolved benefits.

A number of Agency Agreements will be put in place in preparation for transfer of executive competence on 1 April 2020. The Agency Agreements are key mechanisms to support the safe and secure transition of delivery responsibilities from the DWP to our own Social Security Scotland Agency. They are a cost-effective way of ensuring that Scottish residents continue to receive the right payments at the right time whilst we undertake the work required to develop our new systems.

To successfully achieve this, the Scottish Government is working closely with DWP to agree joint plans and priorities to deliver the necessary milestones.

Question reference: S5W-23205

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what incentives are offered to staff in the social security programme to encourage them to remain in post.

Question reference: S5W-23224

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost will be of the IBM contract to provide a case management system for the social security programme in each of the next four years, and how the total cost of this contract compares with the original forecast of £8.3 million.

The current value of the IBM contract is publically available on the Public Contracts Scotland website.

The original £8.3 million value of the contract was to support the development and implementation of four Scottish Government benefits and the revised contract delivers much more than we originally asked for.

A four year breakdown of the cost of the contract is not available. It currently runs until October 2019, with an option to extend. The bulk of the projected costs therefore fall in 2018-19 and 2019-20.

Question reference: S5W-23231

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 16 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether frontline cyber protection is in place to protect the social security programme and, if (a) so, who provides this and (b) not, (i) for what reason and (ii) what progress it is making in identifying a provider.

Question reference: S5O-03292

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage the recruitment of GPs in rural communities.

Question reference: S5W-23220

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 22 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that the delivery of digital infrastructure for the social security programme represents good value for money.

The social security programme has well established governance procedures in place to ensure that affordability and value for money are key considerations throughout the decision making process.

The Social Security Finance team is embedded within the Social Security Programme to ensure robust financial management, monitoring and reporting are in place and that the decision making process is rooted in sound financial advice. Financial management, monitoring and reporting are integral to the programme Governance Structure. Costs are reported to and scrutinised by the Financial Reporting Board before going to the Programme where spending decisions are made.