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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 2070 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-18929

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 2 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many Public Contracts Scotland tender notices it has issued in each year since 2015-16, including the current year to date, that were subject to a non-disclosure agreement, and what proportion this was of the total number of notices it issued.

Scottish Government has published 2161 notices since 2015-16. The breakdown for each calendar year is as follows: 2015: 477; 2016: 511; 2017: 615; 2018: 558. Of this number we are aware of 3 notices being subject to NDA. We are also aware of a further 6 procurement exercises which used an NDA although there was no requirement for a contract notice in these instances. Complete data on the use of NDA across Scottish Government is not centrally held and confirmation of the actual number could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Question reference: S5W-18866

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 2 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether the use of the definition of "disability", within the meaning of section 6 of the Equality Act 2010 in the Scottish Tribunals (Eligibility for Appointment) Amendment Regulations 2018, is to be considered as the definition of "disability" for the purposes of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018.

Question reference: S5W-18819

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 1 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of each (a) public information and (b) advertising campaign it (i) ran in 2017-18 and (ii) has run or plans to run in 2018-19, also broken down by length of campaign.

Question reference: S5W-18812

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the First Minister on 4 September 2018 (Official Report, c. 22), what systems it has asked the DWP to put in place to deliver the Best Start Grant; on what date it requested these, and for what reason they were not in place prior to this announcement.

The Scottish Government have been engaging with DWP over re-use of key systems over the last 2 years which culminated in a formal request over the Summer of 2017 to utilise DWP’s Central Information System (CIS) and Central Payment System (CPS). The implementation plan for CPS is running to schedule. A new CIS plan was received from DWP on 21 September which showed that agreed dates for the implementation of CIS are not going to be met. Officials are now working through this plan, despite the challenges arising from missed deadlines by DWP, to ensure that our work remains on track to deliver the Best Start Grant before Christmas.

Question reference: S5W-18942

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the full commencement schedule for the provisions in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, and which provisions it expects to commence in the next (a) three, (b) six, (c) nine and (d) 12 months.

Question reference: S5W-18780

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many Carer's Allowance claimants have an outstanding (a) overpayment and (b) fraud debt, broken down by the value of the debt.

The following table provides current data obtained from DWP on approximately how many claimants in Scotland have an outstanding overpayment of Carer’s Allowance and how many of these overpayments have been classified as fraud. The table also breaks down the figures by the value of the debt.

Total value of outstanding CA overpayment	Total volume of claimants with an overpayment of CA	Volume of claimants with a Fraud overpayment
Less than £1000	2900	200
£1000 - £5000	2500	300
Over £5000	700	200
Total	6100	700

Question reference: S5W-18779

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has assumed executive competence for handling pre-existing Carer's Allowance overpayment and fraud debt, and whether these debts are subject to (a) DWP recovery rules under agency arrangements or (b) Social Security Scotland procedures.

Question reference: S5W-18862

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much Council Tax Reduction Scheme support has gone unclaimed each year, and what information it has regarding how many people who were eligible for this failed to claim.

Question reference: S5W-18435

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people on the social security charter core group have a protected characteristic, broken down by characteristic.

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) prevent the publication of protected characteristics for small groups of people. Such data is sensitive and breaking down a group of 30 people by nine characteristics could lead to the identification of individuals. However we are able to provide more general information on the characteristics represented in the core group. It includes:

People with a disability (including mental, physical and learning)
Men and women
A range of ages
People with different sexual orientations
People who are married or in civil partnerships
People of different religions and beliefs
People with experience of all relevant benefits
People with fluctuating conditions
People with hearing impairments
People with visual impairments
Carers of both adults and disabled children
Rural and urban dwellers
People with intersecting characteristics (i.e. more than one of the above).

We are also working closely with stakeholders to ensure that the views of people from seldom heard or under-represented groups, including those with other protected characteristics, are strongly reflected in the charter.

Question reference: S5W-18721

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the budget is for Universal Credit (Scottish choices), and how much has been spent, broken down by (a) staffing costs, (b) communications, (c) payments to the DWP for (i) the flexibilities take up, (ii) training and (iii) implementation, and (d) other costs.

Universal Credit (UC) Scottish choices do not have a separate budget line in the Social Security budget. Costs are contained within the allocated budget for the Social Security Directorate. This includes all staffing and communications costs associated with UC Scottish choices.

The Scottish Government paid £529,785.58 to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in April 2018 for one-off implementation costs which included changes to the UC IT system and updates to DWP staff guidance and training.

The Scottish Government estimates ongoing operational costs to be up to
‎ £0.4 million in 2017-18; and up to £1.6 million in 2018-19. The Scottish Government will only pay for the actual number of UC Scottish choices offered and taken up. We expect to receive an invoice from the DWP shortly, based on actual take up rates covering the period 4 October 2017 (when the choices were first made available) to 31 March 2018.