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: S6W-44481

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to annex 1 of the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2026-2031, how it planned to fund the statutory requirement to uprate the Scottish Child Payment, including the introduction of a £40 weekly payment for under-one-year-olds, had the “two-child limit” remained in place.

Question reference: S6W-44479

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to annex 1 of the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2026-2031, for what reason the monetary investment in the Tackling Child Poverty Fund as a result of the allocation of “two child limit funds” has increased from £49 million to £61.5 million, and how this fund would have been financed had the “two-child limit” remained in place.

Question reference: S6W-44480

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 12 March 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 25 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its estimated cost for 2026-27 is of (a) uprating the Scottish Child Payment and (b) introducing the £40 weekly payment for under-one-year-olds.

Question reference: S6W-44003

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 12 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many Pension Age Winter Heating Payments were still to be paid by 24 January 2026, and what the estimated total value was of any such payments.

The Scottish Government is delivering the strongest package of winter support compared with anywhere else in the UK.

Pension Age Winter Heating Payment is forecast to support at least 880,000 pensioners with heating bills this winter.

Applications can continue to be submitted until 31 March 2026 therefore the information requested is not available in any data publication. Applications received after this date may still be considered in certain circumstances. Additionally, individuals may choose to opt out of receiving the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.

Management information published on 4 March 2026 shows that as of 21 February 2026,over 1,051,000 Pension Age Winter Heating Payments had been issued and the total value of payments issued was over £188.1 million.

Question reference: S6W-44004

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 10 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many Pension Age Winter Heating Payments were still to be paid by 26 February 2026, and when any such payments will be paid.

The Scottish Government is delivering the strongest package of winter support in the UK.

Pension Age Winter Heating Payment is forecast to support at least 880,000 pensioners with heating bills this winter.

The information requested is not available in any data publication, and applications can continue to be submitted until 31 March 2026. Applications received after this date may still be considered in certain circumstances. Additionally, individuals may choose to opt out of receiving the Pension Age Winter Heating Payment.

Question reference: S6W-44002

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what resources it has committed to progressing the policy commitment to deliver automatic individual payments of universal credit in Scotland, and how it is ensuring this remains a priority within the work of the social justice directorate.

The Scottish Government remains committed to working with the DWP towards the delivery of split payments for Universal Credit. During 2025 we engaged with the DWP to update the policy design specification, which we resubmitted to them in early 2026 with a request for a formal impact assessment to be carried out. We will continue to work with the DWP to ensure this work is carried out as quickly as possible, noting that progress is reliant on DWP resources.

Question reference: S6W-44006

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-36671 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 2 May 2025, whether it expects automatic split payments of universal credit in Scotland, as it committed to in 2017, to be delivered by the end of 2026, and, if not, when this can be expected.

The delivery of the split payment policy is reliant on the DWP’s ability to carry out an impact assessment of the proposed policy and then to make the necessary changes to the Universal Credit system. The DWP have not yet provided a delivery timetable, therefore it is not currently possible for the Scottish Government to commit to a delivery date. The Scottish Government continues to work with the DWP to progress this policy.

Question reference: S6W-44005

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 27 February 2026
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that split payments of universal credit will be delivered, as set out in part 6, section 94 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, and what action it has taken in the last six months regarding this work.

Question reference: S6O-05608

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 March 2026

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any recent discussions it has had with Fife Council regarding a solution for households in West Wemyss and Denbeath that were issued with eviction notices, following the sale of their tenanted properties by Wemyss Estate to Torah Capital last year.

Question reference: S6O-05516

Asked by: Claire Baker, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 February 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how it is working with local and national bodies to maximise the cultural and economic potential of the Adam Smith heritage in Kirkcaldy.