Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-20749

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 15 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the minimum level of service is for the Financial Health Check service agreed with Citizens Advice Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-20658

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Social Security Scotland staff are based at (a) Dundee House, Dundee, (b) High Street, Glasgow, (c) Victoria Quay, Edinburgh, (d) St Andrew's House, Edinburgh, (e) Atlantic Quay, Glasgow and (f) other (i) Social Security Scotland and (ii) Scottish Government premises.

The Scottish social security system will be directly delivered by Social Security Scotland, through a local presence providing face-to-face advice, supported by administrative functions in our Dundee headquarters and Glasgow.

Location	Number of staff
Dundee House, Dundee (HQ)	141
High Street, Glasgow	108
Atlantic Quay, Glasgow	4
Victoria Quay, Edinburgh	2
Courtyard Falkirk	2
Kilwinning	1
Saughton House, Edinburgh	1
Stornoway	1

Nineteen Local Delivery Relationship Leads have been recruited and will now start detailed planning for how the service will be delivered in each local area. This service will launch when it is required for devolved benefits.

The Local Delivery Relationship Leads have initially been based in existing Scottish Government offices from which they will design the service.

Social Security Scotland will build up a network of locally based staff supporting people to apply for benefits across all 32 local authorities.

Question reference: S5O-02780

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to statistics stating that eligible pensioners in Motherwell and Airdrie received double the number of cold weather payments as those in Bellshill and Coatbridge in 2017-18.

Question reference: S5W-20550

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many of (a) its and (b) each if its agencies staff are qualified to participate on recruitment panels; how many of these people identify as (i) female, (ii) disabled, (iii) black or minority ethnic and (iv) LGBTI, and how many have a protected characteristic, broken down by characteristic.

We do not record the number of interview panel members that are qualified to participate, or the protected characteristics of those that are qualified to participate.

Interview panel members should have undertaken all the appropriate training. All panel members should have completed unconscious bias diversity training and it is preferable that all panel members be trained in competency based interviewing - if this is not possible at least one panel member must be trained. In addition, all panels dealing with between band promotions should be chaired by a qualified Lead Panel Member. Lead Panel Members receive role specific training and induction.

The Scottish Government’s recruitment process complies in full with the Civil Service Commissioners’ requirements in respect to selection being based on merit and fair and open competition.

Question reference: S5W-20549

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many recruitment panels that (a) it and (b) each of its agencies (i) organised in 2017-18 and (ii) have organised since April 2018 had panel members who identified as (A) female, (B) disabled, (C) black or minority ethnic and (D) LGBTI, and how many have a protected characteristic, broken down by characteristic.

We do not record the number of interview panels constituted within the Scottish Government or within its agencies, or the protected characteristics of panel membership.

With reference to both internal and external vacancies for directly employed staff, the Scottish Government and its agencies managed 1,559 vacancies in 2017-18 and 1,617 vacancies from April 2018 to 18 December 2018. Some vacancies are not filled at the first attempt, so the number of interview panels in each of these years will be higher than the number of vacancies managed in those years.

We strive to be as diverse as possible with respect to the membership of our interview panels. The Scottish Government’s recruitment process complies in full with the Civil Service Commissioners’ requirements in respect to selection being based on merit and fair and open competition. These requirements do not require the protected characteristics of panel members to be monitored or reported.

We are especially keen to promote a gender balance, and our guidance states: “the panel should be gender balanced, where practicable (where not practicable you should be able to evidence steps taken to achieve this)”.

Question reference: S5W-20766

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20405 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 December 2018, what the manual checks in place for quality assurance require in terms of staff time per claim; what proportion of the processes are (a) automated and (b) manual, and what the staff time is per claim for manual processes.

With the commencement of Best Start Grant, all applications require that the Client Advisor verify the evidence prior to processing the application to an outcome. The information supplied within the clients application determines the verification processes and the proportion of time per application. At this time, 30% of our verification processes are automated and the other 70% is manual. We will endeavour to improve the level of automation as we iterate our systems and processes based on the feedback from users and stakeholders.

Question reference: S5W-20764

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20403 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 December 2018, whether this has been progressed with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport; whether it considers that a cross-portfolio approach has satisfactorily been taken, and whether section 3 of the Social Security Act has been adequately satisfied by not placing an explicit requirement for NHS boards to provide applications to new mothers in hospital.

Ministers continue to work closely to ensure an effective cross-portfolio approach. Throughout the development and implementation of the Best Start Grant we have and will continue to engage with a range of stakeholders, service users and the wider public as well as colleagues from within Scottish Government.

Section 3 of the Social Security Act does not make specific requirements about the promotional activity to be undertaken; we believe it has been adequately satisfied by the work that has been done to maximise uptake of the Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment. The very high number of applications, especially online, is evidence that our messages are reaching people.

Question reference: S5W-20765

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government further to the answer to question S5W-20403 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 December 2018, for what reason promotion of the Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment was not fully embedded in NHS board maternity and health visiting pathways prior to the launch of the grant; whether it will commission work to report on the position of boards in relation to the approach to promotion in their individual areas, and what the earliest opportunity is that it can place an explicit requirement for them to provide applications to new mothers in hospital.

Our preference is to promote the Best Start Pregnancy and Baby Payment before the baby is born, in order to ensure that parents have access at the earliest opportunity. On the run up to the launch of the Pregnancy and Baby Payment, we ran a co-ordinated communications campaign, working with third sector organisations who support pregnant women and families, Health Boards and Local Authorities to get the message out about this new benefit and maximise uptake.

Over the coming months, we will do further evaluation of who has applied to try and identify if there are any groups that are underrepresented. We will take this into consideration to do everything that we can to encourage applications from parents and carers who may be eligible for this benefit.

Question reference: S5W-20761

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide a substantive answer to question S5W-20261, which received a holding response on 13 December 2018.

Question reference: S5W-20548

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 December 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 9 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many recruitment panels that (a) it and (b) each of its agencies (i) organised in 2017-18 and (ii) have organised since April 2018 contained no panel member who identified as (A) female, (B) disabled, (C) black or minority ethnic and (D) LGBTI.

We do not record the number of interview panels constituted within the Scottish Government or within its agencies, or the protected characteristics of panel membership.

With reference to both internal and external vacancies for directly employed staff, the Scottish Government and its agencies managed 1,559 vacancies in 2017-18 and 1,617 vacancies from April 2018 to 18 December 2018. Some vacancies are not filled at the first attempt, so the number of interview panels in each of these years will be higher than the number of vacancies managed in those years.

We strive to be as diverse as possible with respect to the membership of our interview panels. The Scottish Government’s recruitment process complies in full with the Civil Service Commissioners’ requirements in respect to selection being based on merit and fair and open competition. These requirements do not require the protected characteristics of panel members to be monitored or reported.

We are especially keen to promote a gender balance, and our guidance states: “the panel should be gender balanced, where practicable (where not practicable you should be able to evidence steps taken to achieve this)”.

Chamber and committees