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: S4F-02376

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 10 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 13 November 2014

To ask the First Minister what engagements he has planned for the rest of the day.

Question reference: S4W-22820

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 7 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the value is of the additional funding that it has provided to tackling child poverty and to what areas this will be applied.

The Scottish Draft Budget 2015-16 is a budget for fairness and opportunity with a clear and decisive focus on tackling inequality and on making Scotland a more prosperous country. The scrutiny phase will enable all members of Parliament to feed in views on whether these are the right priorities for Scotland.

Tackling child poverty remains a key commitment for this government and this funding will help us to provide additional support for kinship carers, care leavers and looked after children. It will also allow us to increase support for the Early Years Collaborative and Raising Attainment for All.

Further details will be announced in due course.

Question reference: S4W-22821

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 7 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how it will work with COSLA to extend financial support to kinship carers.

I met with Councillor Chapman on 14 October 2014 to discuss the ongoing investigation by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission in Scotland into local authorities’ policies and payment of allowances to support looked after children in kinship and foster care. We now plan to reconvene the kinship care financial review group with a view to completing the review and publishing our findings as soon as possible.

Question reference: S4W-22819

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 4 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with COSLA about the council tax reduction scheme and its financial contribution to it for 2015-16.

The Scottish Government and local government worked in partnership to provide an extra £40 million in 2013-14 and 2014-15 to mitigate the 10% cut in funding from the UK Government for council tax benefit successor arrangements.

This commitment has enabled us to protect entitlement which existed under council tax benefit within the council tax reduction scheme - meaning that, from April 2013, vulnerable people have had the same net liability for council tax as if council tax benefit were still in place, providing that their circumstances have remained the same.

The Scottish Government’s Draft Budget 2015-16 includes a commitment to roll forward that contribution of £23 million in 2015-16, with an expectation that local government will again contribute £17 million towards filling the funding gap. This joint commitment will enable us to maintain support for the most vulnerable households in Scotland through the council tax reduction scheme.

Question reference: S4F-02365

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 03 November 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 November 2014

To ask the First Minister what engagements he has planned for the rest of the day.

Question reference: S4W-22816

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 3 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much will be allocated to the Scottish Welfare Fund in 2015-16, broken down by local authority.

The Draft Budget 2015-16 proposes that £33 million is allocated to the Scottish Welfare Fund. Following consideration by the joint COSLA/Scottish Government settlement and distribution group, the distribution methodology for 2015-16 will be the same as for 2014-15. The most recent Scottish Welfare Fund statistics contain a breakdown of funding which has been allocated to local authorities for 2014-15. This information is contained in table 25 of the publication which is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Social-Welfare/swf/SWF30Jun2014

Question reference: S4W-22817

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 3 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much is allocated to local authorities for the administration of the Scottish Welfare Fund in 2015-16, also broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S4W-22818

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 3 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers it appropriate to describe the Scottish Welfare Fund as mitigation in relation to the so-called bedroom tax, in light of community care grants and crisis grants being devolved.

Question reference: S4W-22815

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 3 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what the underspend on the Scottish Welfare Fund was in 2013-14, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S4W-22814

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 10 October 2014
Current Status: Answered by Margaret Burgess on 3 November 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how much will be allocated for mitigation of the so-called bedroom tax in 2015-16, broken down by local authority.