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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: S6W-37187

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 25 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 2 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding Equality Impact Assessment reports relating to their work, whether any charities that face having their funding reduced by statutory funders should be (a) consulted in the drafting of the report and (b) given sight of the report prior to any decision being made.

We must conduct an Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) at the earliest stages of developing new policies or revising existing ones. This includes strategies, legislation, guidance, frameworks, training, funding, reviews, and any other activities that affect people. The EQIA process requires evidence gathering to understand and assess the potential impact of policy decisions. This evidence gathering can include public consultations and lived experience discussions with those organisations and members of the public to understand and assess any potential impacts.

Regulation 5 of these Scottish Specific Duties is particularly relevant to EQIAs, as it requires the assessment of all new and revised policies and practices for their impact on the three Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) needs, as well as the publication of these assessment results within a reasonable timeframe and in an easily accessible manner.

Question reference: S6W-37213

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 28 April 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 2 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that Social Security Scotland staff who assess disability benefit applications have appropriate knowledge and understanding of childhood and young adult cancers and their impact.

Social Security Scotland staff who assess applications receive comprehensive training developed in consultation with people with lived experience of health conditions and disabilities.

Due to the complexities and range of health conditions, decision makers are also supported by in-house Health and Social Care practitioners and equipped with the guidance necessary to properly assess the impact of young adult cancers and all other health conditions.

Training includes case studies which highlight a range of health conditions and disabilities, and Clinical Operations colleagues have delivered sessions on general cancer awareness.

As part of its commitment to providing a learning service, Social Security Scotland always welcomes feedback from clients. This helps the organisation understand clients’ views and improve their experience wherever possible.

Question reference: S6W-36173

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will remove the qualifying period for (a) adult and (b) child disability payment for young people diagnosed with cancer.

Question reference: S6O-04589

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the finance secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding a different model for allocating funding to Integration Joint Boards, in light of a recent Accounts Commission report highlighting the unsustainable gaps in their finances.

Question reference: S6W-36174

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason young people with a confirmed diagnosis of cancer must wait at least three months before they can apply for adult or child disability payment.

Question reference: S6W-36176

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the application form and process for (a) adult and (b) child disability payment in order to (i) simplify the process and (ii) make it more appropriate for young cancer patients.

Social Security Scotland’s application forms for disability benefits were designed with disabled people and organisations who support them, to ensure the forms were accessible and inclusive for the people who would be using them.

Careful consideration was given to each of the questions, so people can give Social Security Scotland the information on their individual needs required to make a decision, while balancing the length of the application form.

Social Security Scotland supports people to apply for benefits, including in-person by appointment through its Local Delivery service based in each local authority in Scotland.

Social Security Scotland continues to review how people, including young cancer patients, access its services, and the Agency uses feedback from clients and stakeholders to drive forward improvements, including through its annual Client Survey.

The Adult Disability Payment: Independent Review began in February 2024 and is considering people’s experiences of applying for Adult Disability Payment, which includes the application form and process.

Social Security Scotland has a dedicated application route for terminally ill adults, children and young people with a diagnosed terminal illness. Published data shows the Special Rules for Terminal Illness applications are currently processed within three working days for Child Disability Payment and two working days for Adult Disability Payment.

Question reference: S6W-36175

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the current (a) average and (b) longest wait is for (i) an adult and (ii) a child disability payment from application to payment.

Social Security Scotland routinely publishes statistics on Adult Disability Payment and Child Disability Payment processing times, which include information on the median average processing times.

Latest statistics show that the median average processing time was 42 days in January 2025 for Adult Disability Payment and 73 days in December 2024 for Child Disability Payment.

Social Security Scotland does not currently publish information on the longest processing times for Adult Disability Payment or Child Disability Payment.

The latest Adult Disability Payment and Child Disability Payment official statistics publications can be found at: https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/publications/statistics.

Question reference: S6W-35779

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to measure waiting times for follow-up appointments for chronic pain services, and whether it will publish any such data.

Waiting times for first clinician led chronic pain appointments are currently reported every quarter on the PHS website, Publications - Public Health Scotland. The Pain Management Service Delivery Framework Implementation Plan contains a specific action to work with PHS to improve how we capture and report national data on chronic pain. The current focus of which is to review and improve waiting times data for first appointments. We are considering the feasibility of collecting and reporting national data on waits for return appointments.

Question reference: S6W-35778

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce chronic pain waiting time lists.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving care for people with chronic pain, by delivering the actions in the Pain Management Service Delivery Framework Implementation Plan at pace.

The Implementation Plan outlines actions to expand skills and knowledge on chronic pain across local services and scaling-up new ways of working to improve the consistency and resilience of local pain services.

The Scottish Government’s budget for the coming year has now been passed by Parliament and will invest a record £21.7 billion in Scotland’s health and social care services, including £200 million to reduce waiting lists and improve capacity.

By March 2026, we expect no-one to wait longer than 12 months for a new outpatient appointment, inpatient treatment or day case treatment with more than 150,000 extra patients seen as a result.

Question reference: S6W-35781

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 1 April 2025

To ask the Scottish Government when the consultation on long-term conditions will conclude, and by what date a strategy and action plan will be published.

We are exploring a new long term conditions strategy to better recognise the fact that many people living with long term conditions need the same types of support and care, regardless of their condition.

A public consultation will launch soon and will be open for responses for 12 weeks. We plan to publish a Long Term Conditions Framework before the end of 2025 with action plans following thereafter.