- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 31 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commit to putting guidance in place to ensure that there are suitable access arrangements at COVID-19 vaccination centres for people with unseen impairments.
Answer
The Scottish Government meets with health boards on a regular basis to discuss the vaccination programme. Ensuring it is as accessible as possible for everyone is a key priority. As individual requirements are different, anyone who has concerns about access arrangements should contact their local health board to discuss any additional support needs they have so that adjustments can be made to accommodate them.
The NHS Inform website provides a breakdown of support available by local health board, including help finding transport to your vaccination appointment.
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 28 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the reasons are for setting a time limit of six weeks within which applicants must complete both parts of the Child Disability Payment application process.
Answer
The purpose of setting a six week period is to balance the need to ensure that decisions can be dealt with as quickly as possible, with providing applicant’s sufficient time to seek supporting information, or to request help from Social Security Scotland to obtain this information. It also means that there is an up-to-date record of the individual’s care and mobility needs, which Social Security Scotland might not otherwise have if the application is not completed until a much later date.
It is clear on the application form, in our communications and guidance that if an applicant has any difficulty completing the application within the six week period, they should tell Social Security Scotland. If the applicant has good reason for not meeting the deadline, Social Security Scotland can extend this time period for up to 52 weeks. If Social Security Scotland does not accept the reasons for the late completion, the individual has the right to request a re-determination in relation to the start date of assistance.
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 26 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has allocated to the National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy that was announced in its Programme for Government.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to delivering a National Transitions to Adulthood Strategy in this parliamentary term. Funding allocations to individual portfolios for 2022-23 will be confirmed following the passage of the Budget (Scotland) Bill. Decisions on future spending will also be considered within the context of the Resource Spending Review which will publish in May 2022.
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 21 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a detailed breakdown of the £20 million it has invested in social security advocacy.
Answer
The Scottish Government intends to allocate up to £5.1m per annum to cover the costs of the advocacy provision over a four year period. All of the funding is provided for the establishment and operation of the new service. However, this is a demand-led service and until it has been operational over a period of time it will not be possible to develop a detailed breakdown of when funding will be drawn down.
To ensure continuous improvement of the service, and to inform the next procurement exercise, we will monitor demand and review expenditure over the contract period. Subsequently, the contract value will be updated in the Public Contracts Register ahead of any extension or retendering for this contract.
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 13 January 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 20 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish monitoring data on the Scotspirit Holiday Voucher Scheme.
Answer
This information is not currently available. Our Charity partners were given a deadline of 17 January to return their reports on ScotSpirit Activity processed up until the end of the year (2021). We are still waiting for a few partners to return their data and this is being actively followed up.
I will write to the member as soon as the information is available and a copy will be placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib 63108)
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 18 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government when it expects top priority data sets, identified through the Equality Data Improvement Programme, to be published.
Answer
Through the Equality Data Improvement Programme, officials recently undertook an audit of datasets used by the Scottish Government to identify the extent to which data on each of the nine protected characteristics are collected and published. The next stage, which is underway, will use this information to produce an equality data improvement plan for each analytical area, identifying immediate improvements to datasets that can be completed by the end of 2022 and longer-term improvements that can be completed by the end of 2025. Stakeholders, including equality organisations, will be consulted to help identify priority datasets in Spring 2022.
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 20 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 13 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government by what date it expects to begin its evaluation of the Winter Support Fund.
Answer
In line with the terms and conditions associated with the Winter Support funding, the Scottish Government expects to begin receiving evaluation reports in April 2022.
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 January 2022
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 20 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how it is supporting people working in the cultural and arts sectors.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 20 January 2022
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 December 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 13 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to strengthen the legal requirements for dog breeding.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 13 January 2022
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 22 December 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, with regards to the roll-out of the Child Disability Payment (CDP), what proportion of existing claimants it expects to be in receipt of (a) a greater, (b) the same and (c) a lesser amount of financial assistance under CDP compared with what they receive from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) currently.
Answer
When existing Disability Living Allowance for Children (DLA Child) clients have their awards transferred to Child Disability Payment (CDP) they will receive the same payment rate for CDP as they received for DLA Child at the point of transfer. They will continue to receive this amount until their CDP needs to be reviewed. The value of each component of CDP is the same as DLA Child so that we do not create a two-tier system with varying rules whilst Scottish disability benefit clients are transferred to Social Security Scotland.
The Scottish Fiscal Commission is responsible for forecasting spending on DLA Child and CDP. The Commission has not reported a breakdown of the proportion of the CDP clients in receipt of greater, the same, or lesser amount of financial assistance under CDP compared with what they receive from the Department for Work and Pensions.
In forecasting CDP, the Scottish Fiscal Commission assumed that when award reviews occur the proportion of clients that would have had their award increased, maintained, and decreased under DLA Child will be the same as under CDP. While they recognise that the less frequent award reviews for CDP may increase the proportion of awards staying at their existing level for longer, the Commission’s judgement is that the effect on the overall outcome of award reviews on award levels may be cancelled out by an increase in the average initial award length and light-touch award reviews.
