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-06833

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 2 March 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the second supplementary to question S5O-00612 by Angela Constance on 1 February 2017 (Official Report, c. 6), whether it will provide a breakdown by (a) year and (b) service of the investment in advice services that is worth between £40 million and £50 million.

Question reference: S5F-00948

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 27 February 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 March 2017

To ask the First Minister how many children the measures in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill will lift out of poverty by May 2021.

Question reference: S5W-06914

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government when the social security experience panels will first meet.

Question reference: S5W-06918

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether the social security experience panels are being delivered by it or an external organisation.

Question reference: S5W-06916

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many people had applied to join the social security experience panels as of 31 January 2017, and how many of these had been accepted.

Question reference: S5W-06915

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how people eligible to receive at least one of the devolved benefits will be able to apply to join a social security experience panel.

People with recent experience of receiving benefits will be recruited to the panels in two ways – by direct invitation mailed to a representative sample of current benefit recipients and by an open invitation, publicly asking for volunteers.

After the launch, a registration form can be completed online at: www.gov.scot/socialsecurity. A form will also be available to download at: www.gov.scot/socialsecurity and can be returned by post. A Freephone number will be available for those who require additional support to register, and this will be available on the materials and on the website address above.

Question reference: S5W-06917

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 06 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government on what date the recruitment process for the social security experience panels opened.

Question reference: S5W-07173

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-06219 by Jeane Freeman on 30 January 2017, what the gender breakdown is of these staff, and how many are disabled.

When providing data on diversity characteristics headcount is used. Staffing information for related PQ reference S5W-06219 was on an FTE basis, which explains the differing totals. The grouping “directly employed” - used to present our Official statistics and staffing reports to the Office for National Statistics - excludes staff who are employed by a 3^rd party and not employed by the Scottish Government.

Headcount (directly employed - permanent and fixed term, Modern Apprentice and Inward loans)

31-07-2016

31-08-2016

30-09-2016

31-10-2016

30-11-2016

31-12-2016

DIRECTORATE FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

Female	30	30	32	37	42	43
Male	24	24	24	24	25	26
All	54	54	56	61	67	69



31-07-2016	31-08-2016	30-09-2016	31-10-2016	30-11-2016	31-12-2016

DIRECTORATE FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

Disabled	*	*	*	*	7	7
Not Disabled	28	28	27	31	32	31
Prefer not to say	*	*	*	*	2	2
Unknown	22	21	24	24	26	29
All	54	54	56	61	67	69

To prevent possible disclosure of sensitive information about individuals, headcounts of less than five have been suppressed and shown as * in the table. (Except in cases where 'prefer not to say' is the only value less than five.) In cases where suppression has been required, it is also necessary to suppress a second value to prevent disclosure of the suppressed value by subtraction.

Question reference: S5W-07192

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 13 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 27 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the response to question S5W-06218 by Angela Constance on 30 January 2017, whether the scoping exercise will conclude before the end of 2016-17 and, if so, whether the extent of funding required will be determined in 2017-18.

Question reference: S5W-07172

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 24 February 2017

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the test for absolute poverty in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill is reliant on net household income for the financial year 2010-11.

The absolute poverty target measures whether the poorest families are seeing their incomes rise over time (in real terms). It requires a choice of baseline year that is both sufficiently recent to reflect contemporary living standards and sufficiently far in the past to allow meaningful change to occur over time.

The Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill initially sets the baseline year for the absolute child poverty target as 2010-11 – the baseline used in the UK Child Poverty Act 2010 – but allows for the base year to be adjusted to better reflect contemporary living standards in advance of the target year 2030-31.