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-23465

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) staffing hours and (b) financial resources it has committed to the review of the social security programme workforce.

Question reference: S5W-23367

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Russell on 4 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when the findings of its consultation on disability assistance in Scotland will be published.

Question reference: S5W-23458

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when the review of the social security programme finance functions across the programme and agency (a) began and (b) is expected to conclude.

Question reference: S5W-23424

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 23 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government which branches form the Social Security Reserved Benefits and Strategic Engagement Division; what the function of each is, and how many staff there are in each, broken down by (a) headcount and (b) FTE.

The Social Security Reserved Benefits and Strategic Engagement Division consists of two units; the Reserved Benefits Policy Unit and the Stakeholder Insights and Strategic Engagement Unit.

The following table details the current functions of each branch.

RESERVED BENEFITS POLICY UNIT

STAKEHOLDER INSIGHTS AND STRATEGIC ENGAGEMENT UNIT

Universal Credit and Working Age Benefits team

Income Supplement, Child Benefit and State Pensions team

Stakeholder Insights team

Strategic Engagements team

The figures in the table below provide a breakdown of (a) headcount and (b) Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff numbers as of 1 July 2019.

RESERVED BENEFITS POLICY UNIT		STAKEHOLDER INSIGHTS AND STRATEGIC ENGAGEMENT UNIT
Headcount	FTE	Headcount	FTE
7	7	9	8.7
Headcount total: 17*		FTE total: 16.7*

*Total includes the Head of Division

Question reference: S5W-23462

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when the review of the social security programme workforce (a) began and (b) is expected to conclude.

Question reference: S5W-23368

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when service design of Disability Assistance for Children and Young People will begin.

Question reference: S5W-23369

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether service design of Disability Assistance for Children and Young People is contingent on the outcome of its consultation on disability assistance in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-23204

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) its Social Security Directorate and (b) Social Security Scotland paid to Capita in 2018-19, and what these payments were for.

1. Social Security Directorate:

Capita Business Services Limited – SWAN	£248,936.70	IT services - Networks.
Capita IT services Limited	£41,859.77	IT services – Firewalls.
Capita Resourcing Limited	£110,886.80	Recruitment support - independent skills assessments
Capita Resourcing Limited t/a veredus Executive Resourcing	£5,460	Recruitment support - independent skills assessments
Grand Total	£407,143.27

2. Social Security Scotland:

Capita IT Services Limited Total	£41,859.77	IT services – Networks.
Capita Resourcing Limited Total	£58,306.33	Recruitment support - independent skills assessments
Grand Total	£100,166.10

3. We have made a clear commitment that profit making companies will not be involved in delivering assessments for disability benefits once devolved to Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-23235

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 29 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many Capita staff are or have previously been employed in (a) its Social Security Directorate and (b) Social Security Scotland.

Social Security Scotland and Social Security Directorate do not currently and have not previously engaged any agency workers from Capita.

Both Social Security Scotland and Social Security Directorate operate under the Scottish Government Temporary and Interim Staff Services Framework. Capita are not included within this framework.

We do not hold information on the previous employers of our permanent staff.

We have made a clear commitment that profit making companies will not be involved in delivering assessments for disability benefits once devolved to Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-23073

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 29 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Jobs Grant will be delivered using the Low Income Benefits Agile Service Design contract with IBM.