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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S5W-13191

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration its social security agency has made regarding the payment of assistance to people who are unbanked.

Question reference: S5W-13223

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-10602 by Jeane Freeman on 1 September 2017 and the minister's subsequent letter to the Social Security Committee on 22 November 2017, when it will provide the three month bus pass to people aged 16 to 24 who have been unemployed for six months or more.

Question reference: S5W-13139

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether its staff (a) are and (b) will be entitled to provide people with one-to-one support and help them understand what reserved benefits they are entitled to.

Question reference: S5W-13142

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has (a) requested and (b) received from the Department for Work and Pensions regarding how many people have requested (i) twice-monthly and (ii) direct payments for rent and services under the Universal Credit (Claims and Payments) (Scotland) Regulations 2017.

The Scottish Universal Credit choices were made available to new claims in full service areas from 4 October. Eligible people are offered the new choices in the second assessment period, and therefore 16 November was the first date, following their introduction on 4 October, that the offer could be made to residents in Scotland.

As part of the Scottish Government’s Working Level Agreement with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for the delivering of the Scottish Universal Credit choices, the DWP will provide management information on the number of people who have requested twice monthly and direct payment of their housing cost element of their Universal Credit award to their landlord. We expect to receive the first tranche of management information from the DWP by end December 2017.

Question reference: S5W-13140

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether principle (d) in the Social Security (Scotland) Bill will allow agency staff to provide people with one-to-one support and help them understand what reserved benefits they are entitled to.

Principle (d) - if amended in the manner the Scottish Government intends - will place a legal duty on Scottish Ministers to ensure that people are given what they are entitled to under the Scottish system. It would be inappropriate to extend such a legal duty to also cover other forms of assistance that the Scottish Government has no responsibility for either developing or administering.

However, in line with our commitment to a rights based approach, agency staff will provide one-to-one support, where appropriate, and help people to understand what further support they may be entitled to, including reserved benefits and wider assistance available from other services.

Question reference: S5W-13193

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether its social security agency has considered partnerships with credit unions to assist people who are unbanked and claim assistance.

Question reference: S5O-01609

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will set targets for income maximisation and help reduce the overall amount of benefits that go unclaimed.

Question reference: S5W-13141

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 December 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 13 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government which councils it is still to meet regarding co-locating services for devolved social security.

Question reference: S5O-01598

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to create targets with specific deadlines to reduce the disability employment gap.

Question reference: S5O-01572

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 6 December 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many and what proportion of the IBM UK staff involved with the Low Income Benefits Agile Service Design are disabled.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

The Scottish Government is committed to the delivery of high quality public services, through fair work practices. This includes promoting equality of opportunity and developing a workforce which reflects the population of Scotland in terms of characteristics such as age, gender, and disability. In order to ensure the highest standards of service quality in our contracts, we expect suppliers including IBM to take a similarly positive approach to fair work practices.