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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: S5W-18821

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-16813 by Jeane Freeman on 5 June 2018, whether the provisions at chapter 5 will be commenced for each benefit at the point at which executive competence for the respective benefit transfers.

Question reference: S5W-18816

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will modify the backdate period of the Early Years Assistance (Best Start Grants) (Scotland) Regulations 2018 to 1 November 2018 to mitigate the risk that the DWP does not put in place the systems required to begin making payments.

Question reference: S5W-18817

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether expenditure on the Best Start Grant (Pregnancy and Baby Grant) will be demand-led.

Question reference: S5W-18818

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether entitlement to Best Start Grant (Early Learning and School Age Payments) will apply to children who meet early learning and school age once payments of the Best Start Grant (Pregnancy and Baby Grant) begin in 2018-19, and, if so, whether these payments will be made retrospectively.

The Best Start Grant is made up of 3 separate grants and an application is required for each grant. Implementation will be in 2 phases.

Social Security Scotland will accept applications from those eligible for the Pregnancy and Baby Grant before Christmas 2018.

Delivery of the Early Learning and School Age Grants will follow by Summer 2019. Applications for these grants will not be accepted beforehand. Once delivery has begun, payments will be made to those who are eligible on the date of application and will not be made retrospectively to those who may have qualified earlier.

Question reference: S5W-18614

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what Social Security Scotland statistics and delivery-focused research will be published by the Government Statistics, Social Research and the Operational Research Service in 2018-19.

As the executive competence for the administration of a benefit transfers to Scotland, Social Security Scotland will publish statistics for Scotland on that benefit. In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, publication dates for statistics for Social Security Scotland from 2018 onwards will be pre-announced through a 12-month release calendar, giving a specific release date at least four weeks in advance where practicable.

The Experience Panels research plan for 2018-19 can be found on the Scottish Government website at the following link: https://beta.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/corporate-report/2017/06/social-security-scotland-bill-privacy-impact-assessment/documents/social-security-experience-panels-2018-2019-research-plan/social-security-experience-panels-2018-2019-research-plan/govscot%3Adocument . It contains estimated publication dates for each project. Please note these are subject to change.

Question reference: S5W-18776

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Overarching Delivery Agreement with COSLA permits the co-location of Social Security Scotland staff in (a) schools and (b) GP practices.

The Delivery Agreement covers Local Authority facilities and, while it doesn’t prescribe specific locations or exclude other arrangements, it notes the characteristics that Social Security Scotland will look for when considering co-location. Key to the agreement is the need for facilities to be accessible and services joined up. This will help make sure that people can easily access support in locations convenient to them.

Question reference: S5W-18811

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when the Early Years Assistance (Best Start Grants) (Scotland) Regulations 2018 will be amended to include (a) early learning and (b) school age payments.

Question reference: S5W-18813

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) it and (b) the UK Government will provide to fund the Best Start Grant (Pregnancy and Baby Grant) in 2018-19.

The funding transfer which will accompany the transfer of executive competence for Sure Start Maternity Grant has not yet been agreed with the UK Government. However, it is expected that this will be equivalent to the level of planned expenditure in Scotland from the date of transfer to the end of the financial year.

The Scottish Government will fund any gap between the amount of funding received and actual expenditure on the Best Start Pregnancy and Baby Grant in 2018-19.

Question reference: S5W-18461

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 20 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how it promotes access to welfare rights support as a form of social prescribing, and which NHS boards and GP practices are leading this work.

Scottish Government support for advice services is intended to maximise household resources and ensure people understand their statutory rights and have recourse to redress if those rights are not upheld.

The Scottish Government is funding a part-time welfare advice service facilitator in 2018-19 to support the embedding of Welfare Advice Services in Health and Social Care settings, with a particular focus on general practice and early years.

Provision of welfare advice is a matter for individual NHS Boards and general practices and we do not hold information centrally on where advisers are located.

Question reference: S5W-18563

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 19 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) strategic objectives and (b) performance targets are for Social Security Scotland.

Social Security Scotland's strategic objectives will be introduced in the Agency's Corporate Plan. The Corporate Plan will be published shortly, as an interim document. As with everything it does, Social Security Scotland will develop and iterate its strategic objectives in collaboration with stakeholder communities. An updated version of the Corporate Plan, which reflects this consultation and collaboration, will be published next year.