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: S4O-03071

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 March 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the reported underspend of discretionary housing payments by some local authorities.

Question reference: S4W-19884

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there is an underspend in the Scottish Welfare Fund for 2013-14.

The Scottish Welfare Fund is a new scheme and an underspend in its early months is not surprising as local authorities adapted to their new welfare responsibilities. Action in recent months, including amending the guidance in October 2013 to give local authorities greater flexibility to make awards and working hard with the third sector to promote the fund, has resulted in a sharp rise in spend. Since October 2013 the fund has been spending broadly to profile.

Question reference: S4W-19886

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of the Scottish Welfare Fund has been paid out (a) in cash and (b) as goods and what the value was of the goods.

Between 1 April 2013 and 30 September 2013, the Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF) spent or committed £9.2 million. Of this £9.2 million, a total of £8.6 million had been paid out to households and this was 94% of the spent or committed value. There is a lag between the amount spent or committed and the amount paid out to households, for example, due to households waiting for goods to be delivered.

Of the £8.6 million, around £1.3 million was paid out in cash and around £4.4 million were paid out in goods. Overall, cash payments accounted for 15% of the overall SWF spend by value, and goods accounted for 51% of the overall SWF spend by value. The remaining £2.9 million (34%) was paid out via other methods.

Details of all payments can be found in table 25a of SWF statistics, available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/swf/AprilSept2013.

Question reference: S4W-19887

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of people receiving grants from the Scottish Welfare Fund was referred to other agencies for assistance.

Question reference: S4W-19889

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many people receiving grants from the Scottish Welfare Fund are repeat applicants.

Between 1 April 2013 and 30 September 2013, a total of 35,590 households received funds from the Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF). These 35,590 households made a total of 51,662 applications to the SWF. Of the 35,590 households, 10,514 households (30%) made repeat applications.

Of the 10,514 households making repeat applications, 5,010 (48%) had no applications rejected and 4,389 (42%) had only a single application rejected.

Statistics on the SWF are available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/swf

Question reference: S4W-19888

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of people that had a grant application for the Scottish Welfare Fund rejected was referred to other agencies for assistance.

Question reference: S4W-19885

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will carry out an evaluation of the Scottish Welfare Fund and, if so, whether it will be published.

Question reference: S4W-19883

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 21 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 7 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the first supplementary to question S4O-02918 by Margaret Burgess on 20 February 2014 (Official Report, c. 27950), what the anticipated underspend is in the Scottish Welfare Fund.

Question reference: S4W-19873

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there has been a delay in the publication of its updated race equality statement and what the expected publication date is.

Question reference: S4W-19874

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 March 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will list each of the (a) outcomes achieved and (b) action plans developed as a result of the Scottish Government Race Equality Statement.