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-21375

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 1 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its recruitment strategy is for attracting assessors for work capability assessments, or the Scottish equivalent.

Question reference: S5O-02963

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government under what circumstances an NHS board would limit the amount of necessary operations that a patient requires due to budgetary concerns.

Question reference: S5O-02916

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 27 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what progress the communities secretary is making with introducing measures against poverty, and how a workplace parking levy might impact on this.

The actions the Scottish Government are taking to progress our ambitions to reduce child poverty are outlined in our Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan and backed by a £50 million fund. Our actions also include investing over £125 million annually to mitigate against the impacts of UK Government welfare cuts and support those on low incomes. Money we would rather invest in anti-poverty strategies.

The workplace parking levy will be a discretionary power for local authorities. Any impact on employees would depend on how a scheme is introduced at a local level by local authorities who choose to use these discretionary powers.

Question reference: S5W-21371

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what role Social Security Scotland’s Local Delivery Relationship Leads will have in coordinating the delivery of social security in each local authority.

The role of the Local Delivery Relationship Lead will be to coordinate and manage the delivery of pre-claim support in their allocated Local Authority area. They will lead a team composed of team leaders and pre-claim support staff that will deliver face to face support to clients. They will continue to develop effective working relationships with stakeholders and other local support organisations so we can work together to ensure our clients get the maximum support from Social Security Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-21369

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 01 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government at which locations Social Security Scotland’s Local Delivery Relationship Leads will be based; how many of these premises have been secured; how many will be shared with other organisations, broken down by organisation, and whether the premises will be branded as Social Security Scotland offices.

Question reference: S5W-21660

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government which staff at Social Security Scotland will have the power to make decisions regarding a person's claim, and where such staff will be based.

Question reference: S5W-21662

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many awards of Carers Allowance Supplement have been given to people living outside Scotland.

Carers are only eligible for Carer’s Allowance Supplement if they are resident in Scotland on a particular eligibility date. No payments of Carer’s Allowance Supplement have therefore been made to carers resident outside Scotland on the eligibility dates. However, around 0.2% of payments have been made to carers who moved to an address outside Scotland between the eligibility date and payment date, or to next of kin living outside Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-21659

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether staff at Social Security Scotland's local delivery offices will have the power to make decisions regarding a person's claim.

Question reference: S5W-21664

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides to Social Security Scotland (a) staff and (b) local delivery offices regarding offering support in relation to reserved benefits.

Social Security Scotland staff signpost clients to the Department of Work and Pensions and any relevant Stakeholders where appropriate whenever they have reason to believe there is potential entitlement and/or interest in reserved benefits. The same level of service will be provided when our local services are fully operational, in keeping with the three values of dignity, fairness and respect and the requirements of the Social Security Charter.

Question reference: S5W-21661

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 February 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 February 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what processes are in place for recipients of Social Security Scotland benefits, other than a Best Start Grant, to appeal decisions regarding these.

The Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 (the 2018 Act) sets out the types of assistances that are to be delivered by Social Security Scotland. The process for challenging entitlement decisions is set out in Sections 41-49 of the Act 2018. Where an individual disagrees with a determination of their entitlement they will have a right to request a re-determination which must be completed within the prescribed timescales which will be set out in the regulations for each type of assistance. Following the re-determination, or if it has not been completed in the prescribed timescales, and the individual remains dissatisfied, they will have a right to appeal to the Social Security Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland.

Section 47 places a duty on Social Security Scotland to provide the individual with an appeal form with their re-determination notice so that if they wish to appeal to the First-tier Tribunal they can complete the form and return it to Social Security Scotland. Upon receipt, Social Security Scotland will pass the form and the material used in making the determination to the tribunal within 7 working days and will inform the individual when it has done so.