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-25877

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 31 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether disability assistance regulations will provide for a right of appeal where a new determination is made as a result of an individual notifying a change of circumstances.

As set out in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 (‘the Act’) and stated in the Disability Assistance in Scotland consultation, an individual will have the right to request a redetermination of any entitlement decision made by Social Security Scotland relating to Disability Assistance. This will include any determination made following notification of a change in circumstances. If the individual is dissatisfied with the outcome of the redetermination, they can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal.

Provisions relating to notification of a change of circumstances will be set out in regulations but the right of appeal relating to a determination is already provided for in the Act.

Question reference: S5W-26063

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S5W-25652

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Fair Start Scotland participants in each local authority area have reported deafness or partial hearing loss.

Question reference: S5W-25649

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what stakeholder engagement it has carried out regarding its replacement of the DWP Specialised Employment Support schemes, and with which organisations.

In developing a replacement service for DWP’s Specialist Employability Support, we have engaged with a number of stakeholders in order to inform how the replacement service might better meet the needs of disabled people in Scotland.

This has included holding a number of stakeholder engagement events around Scotland, to ensure funding and support is best targeted at individuals most in need of assistance. Participants in these events included representatives from Local Authorities, the Third Sector and Disabled People’s Organisations, including, but not limited to: Glasgow Disability Alliance, Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living, Inclusion Scotland, SUSE, Shirlie Project, Highland Council, Action on Hearing Loss, Prince’s Trust, Remploy, Cantley Bridge College, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

In addition we are clear that, consistent with the principles of No One Left Behind , the new service must align to local strategic employability pipelines. We are therefore in dialogue with the Scottish and Local Government Alignment group to ensure appropriate integration.

Question reference: S5W-25646

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Fair Start Scotland participants in each local authority area have achieved a (a) 13- and (b) 26-week job outcome, broken down by health condition.

Question reference: S5W-25651

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Fair Start Scotland participants there are in each local authority area, broken down by health condition.

Question reference: S5W-25702

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21923 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 March 2019, whether it is in a position to provide more information regarding the estimated costs of the agency agreements for disability and winter heating assistance.

Question reference: S5W-25701

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21923 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 March 2019, at what stage discussions are with the DWP, and when these discussions (a) began and (b) are scheduled to conclude.

Question reference: S5W-25721

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much its Social Security Directorate budgeted to spend on salaries for contingent workers in each quarter since 2016-17, and how this compared with actual spend.

The budgets for the Scottish Government, including Social Security Directorate, are set out in the Scottish Budget each year, and links are provided below to each year’s Budget. These include budget lines for Social Security, which include the cost for directly employed staff and contingent workers.

2016-17: https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20170702005839/
http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/12/9056/0

2017-18:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-budget-draft-budget-2017-18/

2018-19:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-draft-budget-2018-19/

2019-20:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2019-20/

Regarding a comparison of actual spend to budget, we report this annually in the “final outturn report for the Scottish budget”, and links are provided below to each year’s report:

2016-17 (provisional):
https://www.gov.scot/news/provisional-budget-outturn/

2017-18:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/final-outturn-report-scottish-budget-year-
ended-31-march-2018/

2018-19:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/final-outturn-report-scottish-budget-year-
ended-31-march-2019/

2019-20: to be published

For further information on the specific costs for contingent workers, we publish information on our procurement awards here, including contingent workers:

https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/search_mainpage.aspx .

Question reference: S5W-25700

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21923 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 March 2019, and in light of the Audit Scotland report, The 2018/19 Audit of Social Security Scotland, whether forthcoming agreements for disability and winter heating assistance will resolve the reported issue that Social Security Scotland cannot directly assess the levels of error and fraud under agency arrangements with the DWP.