Chamber and committees

On page 13 of the report, you note that

“NHS NSS built, stocked and decommissioned the NHS Louisa Jordan field hospital”,

and that it is

“responsible for the ... redistribution of equipment to NHS boards across Scotland.”

How quickly is that taking place, given the pressure that many hospitals are under?

It is probably more of a statement for the record, rather than a question. Your report states that seven recommendations have been made in respect of financial sustainability and 47 in respect of governance and transparency. In your section 22 report, you state:

“I will continue to monitor the Commission’s performance, including how it takes forward its Implementation Plan, with a view to further public reporting in the future.”

Given the number of issues that were identified during the audit, the committee would welcome further public reporting in order to gain reassurance that the commission has addressed those issues. You said that they go back to 2016, with some similarities.

An “unmitigated disaster” is how industry experts described dealing with the vaccination passports last weekend. We have seen queues, confusion, abuse of staff and loss of business, all as a result of an app that does not work and a public who are unaware that they even need it. That could have been avoided, if only a proper public information campaign had been put in place. The FACTS campaign was drummed into every mind in the country, with wall-to-wall coverage and posters plastered on every wall, so why has the Scottish Government not bothered when it comes to vaccination passports? Can the minister explain why there has been no campaign? Will we see one in the coming weeks?

I thank the minister for that answer. As he may know, Barr provides waste management services to both East Ayrshire Council and South Ayrshire Council. Due to the findings of the tribunal, the councils may have to provide more funding to Barr for it to provide waste services, as the company cannot operate under the terms of its previous contracts. What discussions will the Scottish Government have with both councils regarding the future of the company and waste management services in the area in order to ensure that the councils receive any extra funding that they require so that there is no impact on local services?

No.

My second test is: does Social Security Scotland deliver on service? Looking at the figures for client satisfaction, it is clear that the agency has work to do. Although the Scottish Government’s benefit take-up strategy claims that Social Security Scotland will be more effective in marketing its services than the DWP, 81 per cent of suggestions from clients this year concerned improvements to the information that is available from the new agency.

Even more telling is the fact that complaints far outweighed compliments, accounting for 77 per cent of the feedback that was received compared to a mere 18 per cent for compliments. For the best start foods payment, there were 270 complaints about the quality of service and a further 50 that related to accessing the benefit. Those are far and away the highest such figures for any benefit delivered in Scotland.

It is clear that there are communication issues on child disability payments, too. During the pilot programme in Dundee, nearly half the applications were denied. That suggests that work needs to be done to explain the application process and make it understandable to applicants.

The service needs improving, and not only at a national level. Social Security Scotland boasts that it has a presence in every local authority but that is news to most.

For any social security system to succeed, it is an essential requirement that it delivers—in literally delivering benefits, in delivering service and in delivering value for money. Determining whether Social Security Scotland meets those tests is an interesting exercise, so I ask members to bear with me.

From looking at the delivery of benefits by Social Security Scotland, it is clear that things are not going to plan. Yes, some benefits have been delivered, and the Social Security Scotland staff on the ground who have made that happen deserve praise. However, in reality, what we are seeing is a far cry from what we were promised. There has been a painfully slow roll-out of the Scottish child payment; one benefit has been entirely handed back to the UK Government; and there has been a four-year delay in the transfer of existing cases from the DWP.

The First Minister said:

“I want to make ending child poverty a driving mission for the next Parliament ... It is a downpayment on what will be possible when we have the full powers over tax and social security”.

However, in March 2021, only 1 per cent of applications for the Scottish child payment were processed within 10 days. Most applicants waited 55 days for a decision. That is not quite the down payment that the First Minister promised and certainly not the one that working families across Scotland were hoping for.

No.

When I called up my local council to find out details of its local Social Security Scotland team, it had never heard of a local delivery office or the team and could not signpost me to anyone who could help with devolved benefits.

No means no.

Neither is there any web page suggest that such a team exists other than a single LinkedIn profile that I found.

If the local benefits team cannot signpost an MSP to the devolved benefits office, how do claimants stand a chance? By comparison, the DWP has two offices in Ayr and regularly hosts job fairs at prominent locations around the town. The local visibility of Social Security Scotland simply has to be improved. It cannot continue to be a backroom operation known only to the people who are in the know.

My third test is: does the social security system deliver a cost-effective service? That idea is enshrined in Social Security Scotland’s charter as its final principle:

“the Scottish social security system is to be efficient and deliver value for money.”

Where do we begin? The cost of the new system has doubled, staff requirements have doubled and there is a huge increase in temporary contracts. The cabinet secretary has admitted that Social Security Scotland will be no more cost efficient than the DWP. That is all before the Scottish Government has even agreed to double the Scottish child payment.

Lurking on the horizon is the universal basic income. Should the Scottish Government be looking to introduce such a payment, particularly when it will cost £58 billion a year? Social Security Scotland was unable to handle £347 million of benefits without doubling its workforce or its budget, so how on earth does the cabinet secretary think that it will be able to process £58 billion with ease? That is even before she sources the funding, which amounts to more than three times the current health spending. Surely it is in the interest of ordinary Scots, as well as of public finance, to focus on improving the services that we have—or perhaps even the ones that were handed back to the DWP—rather than launching into a reckless vanity project that fails to target the most vulnerable and hands money to families regardless of their financial status.

We have the opportunity to build a new system, one that is tailored to Scotland and that meets the needs of Scotland’s people, so let us do that and build the system that Scotland really needs.

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Barr Environmental has received a £99 million fine for having not paid tax on disposed waste. (S6O-00331)

As the cabinet secretary will know, members of the armed forces have been stepping up across the country to answer calls to help with the ambulance crisis and the backlog in booster jags. NHS Ayrshire and Arran is one of three health boards that have requested assistance. However, unlike other health boards, NHS Ayrshire and Arran is the only one to request military help with general services on top of their additional duties. NHS Ayrshire and Arran refused to comment as to why that help is needed and what the military personnel will be doing. Can the cabinet secretary shed any light on that situation and assure me that NHS Ayrshire and Arran is the only health board where military personnel are performing general duties, rather than those that were agreed previously?