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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: S6O-01384

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it has provided to Dundee as part of its Covid Recovery Strategy to support the city's recovery from the pandemic.

Question reference: S6W-10317

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 22 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many Scottish Child Payment applications from families in Dundee have been (a) received and (b) processed since applications opened in November 2020; what the current take-up percentage is in Dundee; how many children have received the Scottish Child Payment in Dundee, and what the total value of Scottish Child Payments has been to families in Dundee.

According to the latest quarterly edition of the Scottish Child Payment statistical publication, between 9 November 2020 and 30 June 2022, the number of applications received for the Scottish Child Payment benefit from people living in the Dundee City Local Authority area is 5,990. In total, 5,500 applications had been processed as of 30 June 2022.

Scottish Government published an estimate on uptake in October 2021 as part of their benefit take-up strategy. The estimate of national take-up for the Scottish Child Payment benefit was 77%. This publication did not include geographical breakdowns.

As of 30 June 2022, it is estimated that 104,000 children were in receipt of Scottish Child Payment. Whilst this 104,000 figure is included in the latest Scottish Child Payment statistical publication, we do not currently produce equivalent information by Local Authority areas.

Between 15 February 2021 when the benefit officially launched and 30 June 2022, Social Security Scotland had issued £2.9 million of Scottish Child Payments to clients living in Dundee City Local Authority area.

Question reference: S6W-10314

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 15 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 20 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many Social Security Scotland jobs in Dundee (a) have been created and (b) are expected to be created in (i) 2022-23 and (ii) 2023-24.

At June 2022 our latest published statistics show that Social Security Scotland had reached 3,061 employees with 1,050 these colleagues employed with Dundee as their office location.

By Autumn 2022 we expect Social Security Scotland to directly employ more than 3,500 people. We have made 2,000 offers of employment with new staff joining up until the end of 2022. We have 11 organised campaigns to launch with a Dundee specific location in 2022-23. We have/have not yet planned the specific Dundee campaigns for 2023-24.

Question reference: S6O-01347

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2022
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 8 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with the UK Government regarding the UK spending review and its impact on Scotland in relation to resources to take account of any proposed public sector pay uplifts and addressing the wider effects of inflation and the cost of living crisis.

I wrote to the former Chancellor of the Exchequer on 31 July to request that he consider providing appropriate funding for public sector pay, given that our current funding was set in last October’s UK Spending Review which was based on 3% pay uplifts. This followed a letter from the Finance Secretary and the Finance Ministers of the other devolved governments outlining their concerns, including on the cost crisis and public sector pay. This letter was sent on 15 July, following prior engagement on this when they met with the Chief Secretary in Cardiff in June. The Scottish Government is still awaiting a formal response to these letters. I raised these matters with the new Chancellor upon his appointment on 6 September and hope to receive a response from him shortly.

Question reference: S6O-01351

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 September 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how the proposed Criminal Justice Reform Bill in its Programme for Government will aim to improve the experiences of victims in the justice system.

Question reference: S6W-10104

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 29 July 2022
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 24 August 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people in Dundee have been offered workplace opportunities through the Young Person’s Guarantee since its launch.

Data on outcomes is currently published at national level. From our latest publication ( May 2022 ), 5,224 (31%) of the 16,859 people that started receiving support under No One Left Behind between April 2019 and December 2021 entered employment. Of those entering employment, 2,722 (52%) were supported by a subsidy to do so (this includes ERIs) and 832 (16%) started a Modern Apprenticeship.

Data on people receiving employability support delivered under the No One Left Behind strategic approach are currently published as experimental statistics which means they are still going through a process of development. Scottish Government analysts are working closely with Local Government partners to further develop these data, ensuring alignment with the Shared Measurement Framework, and will continue to review the content of what data and breakdowns are released in the future as part of the process to move towards official statistics status.

Question reference: S6F-01289

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 June 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 June 2022

To ask the First Minister, as the end of Pride month approaches, whether she will provide an update on the implementation of Scotland's reportedly world leading LGBT Inclusive Education.

Question reference: S6W-08643

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 May 2022
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 7 June 2022

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the (a) £349 million spare room subsidy and (b) £80.4 million welfare reforms mitigation has been allocated to Dundee City in each year from 2017-18 to 2022-23.

Scotland has budgeted £429.4 million in total for Discretionary Housing Payments since DHPs were devolved in 2017 to the 2022-23 financial year. This is broken down into £349 million for mitigation of the bedroom tax and £80.4 million for mitigating the impact of other welfare reforms. From that national figure, £16,369,752 has been allocated to Dundee City in total for DHPs which includes (a) £13,407,801 for bedroom tax and (b) £2,961,950 for “Other DHP”, used to mitigate welfare reforms.

SG funding for DHPs for Dundee City 2017-18 to 2022-23

Year	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21	2021-22	2022-23	Total
Bedroom Tax Budget	£1,890,097	£1,997,619	£1,962,771	£2,220,151	£2,758,235	£2,578,928	£13,407,801
Other DHPs	£444,520	£420,079	£427,962	£813,391 1	£427,185	£428,813 2	£2,961,950
Full Budget	£2,334,617	£2,417,698	£2,390,733	£3,033,542	£3,185,421	£3,007,741	£16,369,752

Note: These figures do not include administration funding

1. Figure includes a share of additional £8m of Covid-support funds

2. Figure does not yet include additional support committed for benefit cap mitigation in 2022-23.

Question reference: S6O-01139

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 May 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 May 2022

To ask the Scottish Government what services the £10,500 tariff provided by the UK Government for local authorities to support displaced Ukrainians arriving in Scotland is expected to cover.

Question reference: S6O-01011

Asked by: Joe FitzPatrick, MSP for Dundee City West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 April 2022
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 April 2022

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its discussions with the UK Government regarding food security and supply.