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-23218

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what provision has been made in the social security programme budget to provide for in-house disability-related assessments.

The 2019-20 Social Security budget includes £77.8 million to support the programme of delivery. This includes provision to support the delivery of disability assessments, including the recent contract awarded to Deloitte. That contract is worth £2.3 million over 2 years, and will focus on the design of the assessment centre network across Scotland, including working with users to look at what major improvements on the current UK system are necessary.

Question reference: S5W-23228

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many hours overtime have been worked by (a) permanent, (b) temporary and (c) contract staff in the social security programme.

The following table shows hours of overtime claimed by permanent staff directly employed by the Scottish Government. We pay contractors a daily rate and therefore overtime does not apply. No overtime was claimed by temporary staff. The data provided is from May 2018 onwards which is from the first overtime claim we have recorded.

Month claim refers to	Hours and minutes claimed
May 18	6.12
June 18	50.54
July 18	27.36
August 18	119.54
September 18	112.12
October 18	150.18
November 18	92.00
December 18	147.12
March 19	20.00
April 19	15.00

Monday to Saturday overtime claims for programme management and delivery division directly employed permanent staff.

Month claim refers to	Hours and minutes claimed
May 18	5.60
June 18	8.42
July 18	11.12
August 18	18.24
September 18	8.18
October 18	37.48
November 18	2.00
December 18	21.18
January 19	27.00
February 19	4.42
April 19	5.00

Sunday overtime claims for programme management and delivery division directly employed permanent staff.

Permanent includes permanent, fixed term appointments with fair and open competition and modern apprentices.

Month claim refers to	Hours and minutes claimed
September 18	16.12
November 18	10.42

Public and Privilege overtime claims for programme management and delivery division directly employed permanent staff.

Question reference: S5W-23229

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that staff in the social security programme can access appropriate mental health support.

All Programme Management and Delivery staff have access to the Scottish Government Employee Assistance programme (EAP). The programme provides professional support and guidance to those experiencing emotional, practical, health and social problems. Includes support via telephone, face to face and mail and includes one to one counselling services as well as 24 hours a day, 365 days a year access to confidential helplines for all staff.

The EAP provides a Health and Wellbeing zone for all staff and family members – including; stress management solutions, health and nutrition advice and access to wellness regimes.

The EAP is sign posted via our internal intranet pages to all staff and also to new recruits during the Directorate specific induction. Staff are also directed to the following sources of support.

People and Advice Wellbeing team (part of SG People Directorate)
People Advice and Wellbeing Counsellor (part of SG People Directorate)
Trade Unions
Mental Health First Aiders
Mental Health and Wellbeing network
Charity for Civil Servants
HR Helpdesk

There is a rolling series of learning events available to all programme staff including sessions on:-

mental health awareness
mental health awareness for managers
identifying stress and building resilience for managers
building personal resilience
handling sensitive conversations with confidence.

Question reference: S5W-23199

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many households in the (a) Midlothian, (b) East Lothian and (c) Scottish Borders local authority area have experienced fuel poverty in each of the last 10 years.

The number of households in each local authority that are experiencing fuel poverty is published annually in the Scottish House Condition Survey local authority tables.

Local Authority figures are based on a 3-year pooled sample to allow sufficient sample sizes to produce results on each local authority. The figures in Table 1 shows the numbers of fuel poor households and the fuel poverty rate based on the most recent 10 of the 3-year pooled samples, for Midlothian, East Lothian and Scottish Borders.

These estimates are based on the current definition of fuel poverty as set out in the 2002 Scottish Fuel Poverty Statement. There are proposed changes to this definition in the Fuel Poverty (Target, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Bill , which is currently progressing through Parliament.

Table : Fuel poverty rates and number of fuel poor households in Midlothian, East Lothian and Scottish Borders over 10 periods of 3-year pooled sample datasets.

	Midlothian		East Lothian		Scottish Borders
	Number of households	%	Number of households	%	Number of households	%
2005-2008 1,2	8,000	24%	10,000	23%	33%	17,000
2007-2009 1	10,000	29%	11,000	27%	40%	20,000
2008-2010 1	10,000	29%	12,000	28%	38%	20,000
2009-2011 1	10,000	28%	13,000	30%	40%	21,000
2010-2012	10,000	28%	13,000	30%	40%	21,000
2011-2013	11,000	30%	14,000	31%	40%	21,000
2012-2014	11,000	30%	15,000	33%	39%	21,000
2013-2015	11,000	29%	14,000	31%	38%	20,000
2014-2016	8,000	22%	12,000	27%	34%	18,000
2015-2017	8,000	22%	11,000	25%	31%	17,000

Source: Scottish House Condition Survey

1. Historical Local Authority tables prior to the 2010-2012 period continue to be available but these have not been updated, therefore there may be differences in the underlying methodology and data breakdowns compared to more recent tables.

2. 2005-2008 figures combine three years’ worth of data (2005-06, 2007 and 2008) to provide a series of tables which present estimates for key indicators important at local authority level.

Local Authority estimates along with confidence intervals around the survey based results, are published here: https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/SHCS/keyanalyses .

Question reference: S5W-23208

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that decisions made through the social security programme are appropriately escalated or reported to the programme's board.

We can confirm, and as stated by the Auditor General the Public Affairs and Post-legislative Scrutiny Committee meeting held 16 May 2019, that the Social Security Programme has well established and robust governance structures, processes and mechanisms in place to support decision making and facilitate the escalation of risks and issues as when appropriate.

The Programme continues to show a commitment to improving its governance, reflecting on its progress and learning lessons.

Question reference: S5W-23213

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that Social Security Scotland is staffed by an adequate number of permanent employees.

When considering our location(s) of our offices in Dundee and Glasgow, the Scottish Government undertook comprehensive analysis, part of this analysis was to consider the labour market and the ability to recruit for permanent posts within each location.

Social Security Scotland engage with third sector organisations and employability stakeholders across Scotland to raise awareness of their recruitment campaigns.

This has delivered successful outcomes in not only filling vacancies advertised, but also created some reserve lists for future recruitment campaigns.

Question reference: S5W-23219

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress it is making in finalising the contracts with the DWP for continued delivery of some devolved benefits.

A number of Agency Agreements will be put in place in preparation for transfer of executive competence on 1 April 2020. The Agency Agreements are key mechanisms to support the safe and secure transition of delivery responsibilities from the DWP to our own Social Security Scotland Agency. They are a cost-effective way of ensuring that Scottish residents continue to receive the right payments at the right time whilst we undertake the work required to develop our new systems.

To successfully achieve this, the Scottish Government is working closely with DWP to agree joint plans and priorities to deliver the necessary milestones.

Question reference: S5W-23325

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides to local authorities regarding the implementation of the Scottish Welfare Fund.

Question reference: S5O-03292

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 May 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to encourage the recruitment of GPs in rural communities.

Question reference: S5W-23196

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 May 2019
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 22 May 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many claims for compensation for journeys on the Borders Railway ScotRail received in each month between May 2016 and May 2019.