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-18935

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 3 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) its Social Security Directorate and (b) Social Security Scotland has spent on goods and services from the private sector, and from which suppliers.

The Social Security Directorate spent £5.2 million in 2017-18 and has spent £9.6 million to date in 2018-19 on goods and services from the private sector.

Social Security Scotland was formally established as an executive agency of the Scottish Government on 1 September 2018. It has not yet made any payments to private sector suppliers for goods and services but expects to do so in 2018-19.

The Social Security Directorate and Social Security Scotland utilise a range of private sector suppliers. The Scottish Government regularly publishes the detail of all expenditure over £25,000, this includes details of the nature of the expenditure and the supplier for the Social Security Directorate. Social Security Scotland will also publish reports to provide transparency of expenditure over £25,000.

Question reference: S5W-18930

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 3 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Prior Information Notice, Provision of Agile Service Design to deliver Social Security Assessments Function, and Supplier Awareness Event are subject to a non-disclosure agreement.

Question reference: S5W-18932

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 3 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what public transport access there is to Social Security Scotland offices in (a) Dundee and (b) Glasgow, and whether these are accessible to disabled people.

Social Security Scotland’s interim headquarters at Dundee House in Dundee and the Glasgow office at 220 High Street are both situated close to main bus routes and mainline rail stations.

Proximity to public transport links, frequency and volume of services and the availability of ground floor public spaces were key criterion in the analytical process which rated the shortlisted buildings in each city.

The interim Headquarters in Dundee and Glasgow office are fully compliant with Equalities Act legislation.

Question reference: S5W-18866

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 2 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether the use of the definition of "disability", within the meaning of section 6 of the Equality Act 2010 in the Scottish Tribunals (Eligibility for Appointment) Amendment Regulations 2018, is to be considered as the definition of "disability" for the purposes of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018.

Question reference: S5W-18929

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 2 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many Public Contracts Scotland tender notices it has issued in each year since 2015-16, including the current year to date, that were subject to a non-disclosure agreement, and what proportion this was of the total number of notices it issued.

Scottish Government has published 2161 notices since 2015-16. The breakdown for each calendar year is as follows: 2015: 477; 2016: 511; 2017: 615; 2018: 558. Of this number we are aware of 3 notices being subject to NDA. We are also aware of a further 6 procurement exercises which used an NDA although there was no requirement for a contract notice in these instances. Complete data on the use of NDA across Scottish Government is not centrally held and confirmation of the actual number could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Question reference: S5W-18819

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 1 October 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide details of each (a) public information and (b) advertising campaign it (i) ran in 2017-18 and (ii) has run or plans to run in 2018-19, also broken down by length of campaign.

Question reference: S5W-18862

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much Council Tax Reduction Scheme support has gone unclaimed each year, and what information it has regarding how many people who were eligible for this failed to claim.

Question reference: S5W-18812

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the statement by the First Minister on 4 September 2018 (Official Report, c. 22), what systems it has asked the DWP to put in place to deliver the Best Start Grant; on what date it requested these, and for what reason they were not in place prior to this announcement.

The Scottish Government have been engaging with DWP over re-use of key systems over the last 2 years which culminated in a formal request over the Summer of 2017 to utilise DWP’s Central Information System (CIS) and Central Payment System (CPS). The implementation plan for CPS is running to schedule. A new CIS plan was received from DWP on 21 September which showed that agreed dates for the implementation of CIS are not going to be met. Officials are now working through this plan, despite the challenges arising from missed deadlines by DWP, to ensure that our work remains on track to deliver the Best Start Grant before Christmas.

Question reference: S5W-18942

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the full commencement schedule for the provisions in the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, and which provisions it expects to commence in the next (a) three, (b) six, (c) nine and (d) 12 months.

Question reference: S5W-18779

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has assumed executive competence for handling pre-existing Carer's Allowance overpayment and fraud debt, and whether these debts are subject to (a) DWP recovery rules under agency arrangements or (b) Social Security Scotland procedures.