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-22244

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its consultation on disability assistance, with regard to duration of awards, what mechanism it will use to determine whether a person is likely to have a significant change in their needs in order to set a review point, and whether a person will be entitled to request a re-determination of the decision to set a review point in isolation.

Question reference: S5W-22223

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to its comments in its consultation on disability assistance regarding Social Security Scotland's ability to use face-to-face assessments in prescribed circumstances for the determination of disability assistance for working age people, for what reason it has not requested specific feedback on this list of circumstances in its consultation; how it plans to manage the agency's freedom to decide where a face-to-face assessment is required, and how it will consult in further detail on the agency's proposed use of this power.

Question reference: S5W-22237

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its consultation on disability assistance, whether it plans to produce a list of the types of supporting information that will be considered and, if so, whether this will be inclusive rather than exhaustive.

Question reference: S5W-22071

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement in its position paper on Cold Spell and Winter Heating Assistance (WHA) that "We propose this WHA payment is consistent with the current Winter Fuel Payments made by the UK Government at £200", whether WHA will only be paid at a rate of £200.

Question reference: S5W-22219

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether disability assistance case managers will be trained to (a) have specialist knowledge regarding a single or small number of conditions or (b) take a generalist approach with a knowledge of a wide number of conditions.

Question reference: S5W-22265

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether an individual will have an absolute right to a home assessment for disability assistance in the event that they request one as a result of Social Security Scotland having determined that a face-to-face assessment is required.

Question reference: S5W-22241

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what questions it has put to the social security experience panels regarding automatic entitlement to disability assistance, and what responses it has received.

Research was undertaken with Experience Panel members regarding automatic entitlement in July and August 2018. The findings were published on 29 November 2019 and can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/social-security-experience-panels-award-duration-automatic-entitlement/ . A visual summary is also available here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/social-security-experience-panels-award-duration-automatic-entitlement-visual-summary/ .

Question reference: S5W-22247

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason its consultation on disability assistance does not invite a response to its proposals regarding (a) fluctuating conditions, (b) the rate of benefits, (c) access to accessible vehicle leases and equipment and (d) appointees.

Question 64 of the Disability Assistance consultation requests any further comments consultees wish to make relating to Disability Assistance not specifically covered by the consultation document. This question allows consultees to provide any comments on areas they have not had the opportunity to provide.

(a) Information relating to fluctuating conditions is connected to the section on Duration of Awards and is covered within this area of the consultation document.

(b) We do not intend to change the rates of benefits for all forms of Disability Assistance and therefore are not asking any specific questions on this.

(c) We have set out in the section on Access to Accessible Vehicle Leases and Equipment that we intend to ensure that there will be an equivalent Scottish scheme in place in advance of the delivery of Disability Assistance. Based on the 2016 consultation we know that users of the current service are supportive of this approach. We therefore did not ask any specific questions on this.

(d) The rules on appointees are set out by The Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018.

Question reference: S5W-22132

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21923 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 March 2019, how much the agency arrangements will cost each year, broken down by (a) benefit and (b) the methodology used to calculate this, and on what date the formal discussions with the DWP regarding these costs began.

Question reference: S5W-22079

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 12 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of statements in its Social security case transfer: policy position paper, on what date discussions with the DWP on case transfer commenced.