- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 December 2021
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2021
To ask the First Minister what discussions she has had with COSLA regarding the local government funding settlement for 2022-23.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 16 December 2021
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 2 December 2021
To ask the Scottish Government which local authorities categorise military compensation as income in relation to applications for benefits for (a) housing and (b) council tax reduction.
Answer
(a) As per the guidance on Discretionary Housing Payments and the guidance on the GOV.UK webpage, anyone receiving Industrial Injuries Benefit (and equivalent payments made as part of a War Disablement Pension or the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme) are exempt from the benefit cap. Therefore, all local authorities should disregard this payment as income when assessing applications for housing related benefits.
(b) The Council Tax Reduction Regulations instruct that armed forces independence payments should be fully disregarded as income in the calculation of council tax reduction. Therefore, all local authorities should disregard these payments as income in relation to applications for council tax reduction.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 1 December 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to applications to Social Security Scotland for means-tested devolved benefits, whether military compensation is exempt from being categorised as income, and if this is not the case, under what circumstances could military compensation be categorised as income.
Answer
The Scottish Government do not provide any directly means tested benefits and therefore have not taken any decisions as to whether military compensation would be categorised as income or not.
Determination of what is considered income when assessing reserved qualifying benefit entitlements is a responsibility of the UK Government.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 1 December 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has the power to exempt military compensation as normal income from benefits that are primarily “passported” from reserved benefits.
Answer
As noted in the answer to S6W-04370 on 1 December 2021, the Scottish Government does not conduct means-testing for any of the devolved benefits that it delivers.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 1 December 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has the power to compensate veterans who are in receipt of benefits and who are being financially disadvantaged as a result of receiving military compensation, by topping up their benefits or providing a discretionary payment.
Answer
The Scottish Government is not aware of existing scenarios where veterans would be financially disadvantaged as a result of military compensation payments reducing or removing reserved benefit entitlements.
As such, there has not been any examination of whether the Scottish Parliament's existing powers could be used for top-ups or discretionary payments. In scenarios where veterans were being disadvantaged as a result of compensation payments it would be appropriate for this to be remedied at source by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Ministry of Defence.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 30 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many veterans are in receipt of Social Security Scotland devolved benefits.
Answer
Social Security Scotland does not hold information on how many veterans are in receipt of the benefits it delivers. This information is not captured as part of the application process and therefore not reported as part of the information Social Security Scotland routinely publishes on benefits.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 30 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many veterans in Scotland are in receipt of Universal Credit.
Answer
Universal Credit, alongside other reserved benefits including Employment and Support Allowance, are fully reserved to the UK Government and as such the Scottish Government does not hold the data relevant to this question.
The Department for Work and Pensions provides the data confirming the number of people in receipt of both of these benefits, however it does not record information relating to an individual’s past employment or if they are a veteran.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 15 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Ben Macpherson on 30 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many veterans are in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04373 on 30 November 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 18 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what the geographical breakdown is of the 22,660 renewable energy industry jobs that have reportedly been created.
Answer
Research carried out by the Fraser of Allander Institute found that Scotland’s renewable activities support 22,660 full-time equivalent jobs in Scotland 2019.
https://www.scottishrenewables.com/assets/000/001/718/2021_FAI_Economic_Impact_of_Scotland_s_Renewable_Energy_Sector_original.pdf?1622564058 ).
No data is available to provide additional geographic breakdowns below the Scotland level at this time.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 November 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 25 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how it will support the cultural sector in Aberdeen to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 25 November 2021