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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-25614

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether a payment of the Scottish Child Payment for children under the age of six will continue to be paid in the event of a child reaching the age of six during (a) 2020-21 and (b) 2021-22.

When the Scottish Child Payment was launched, it was made clear that while the payment would be fully introduced by the end of 2022, early payments would be made for children under 6. In order to introduce this payment early, and significantly ahead of schedule, we have had to work within certain legal and technical parameters. This is, therefore, a standalone payment for eligible families with children under 6, and, at this stage, payments will not continue beyond this age during 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Full details of the legal and technical issues is set out in an updated position paper, published on Friday 4 October and available on the Scottish Government’s website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-child-payment-updated-position-paper/ .

Question reference: S5W-25700

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21923 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 March 2019, and in light of the Audit Scotland report, The 2018/19 Audit of Social Security Scotland, whether forthcoming agreements for disability and winter heating assistance will resolve the reported issue that Social Security Scotland cannot directly assess the levels of error and fraud under agency arrangements with the DWP.

Question reference: S5W-25699

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the mean salary is for staff in the (a) Programme Management and Delivery and (b) Chief Digital Officer division of the Social Security Directorate, broken down by grade, and how this compares with that of contingent staff.

We publish the following information on staff salaries in the Scottish Government, which includes the Social Security Directorate:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-sector-pay-policy-staff-pay-remits-2019-20-technical-guide/pages/9/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-19-00145/

https://www.gov.scot/policies/public-sector-pay/pay-transparency/

And we publish the following information on our staff numbers:

https://www.gov.scot/publications/workforce-information/

Regarding the salaries for contingent workers, we refer you to the PQ responses in the following links:

S5W-25516 – https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&ReferenceNumbers=S5W-25516&ResultsPerPage=10

S5W-25345 – https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx?SearchType=Advance&ReferenceNumbers=S5W-25345&ResultsPerPage=10

Question reference: S5W-25702

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21923 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 March 2019, whether it is in a position to provide more information regarding the estimated costs of the agency agreements for disability and winter heating assistance.

Question reference: S5W-25721

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much its Social Security Directorate budgeted to spend on salaries for contingent workers in each quarter since 2016-17, and how this compared with actual spend.

The budgets for the Scottish Government, including Social Security Directorate, are set out in the Scottish Budget each year, and links are provided below to each year’s Budget. These include budget lines for Social Security, which include the cost for directly employed staff and contingent workers.

2016-17: https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20170702005839/
http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/12/9056/0

2017-18:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scotlands-budget-draft-budget-2017-18/

2018-19:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-draft-budget-2018-19/

2019-20:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2019-20/

Regarding a comparison of actual spend to budget, we report this annually in the “final outturn report for the Scottish budget”, and links are provided below to each year’s report:

2016-17 (provisional):
https://www.gov.scot/news/provisional-budget-outturn/

2017-18:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/final-outturn-report-scottish-budget-year-
ended-31-march-2018/

2018-19:
https://www.gov.scot/publications/final-outturn-report-scottish-budget-year-
ended-31-march-2019/

2019-20: to be published

For further information on the specific costs for contingent workers, we publish information on our procurement awards here, including contingent workers:

https://www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk/search/search_mainpage.aspx .

Question reference: S5W-25701

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 07 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-21923 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 March 2019, at what stage discussions are with the DWP, and when these discussions (a) began and (b) are scheduled to conclude.

Question reference: S5W-25706

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 22 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it collects regarding the day-rates of the interim and contingent workers that it hires.

Question reference: S5W-25708

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 22 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many interim and contingent workers are filled (a) directly and have a Scottish Government payroll record and (b) by a supplier, for the purposes of paying tax and national insurance in accordance with IR35 requirements.

Contingent workers are not employed directly by Scottish Government and do not have records on an SG payroll. Information on contingent workers employed by agencies and engaged in Scottish Government Core is published in our Official Statistics publication which can be found here. https://www.gov.scot/publications/workforce-information/

Workers in scope for IR35 are an exception to the above as regards payroll. They are counted as contingent workers and are not employed directly by SG. They have a contract for provision of services not a contract of employment but do have a payroll record. Payroll is used to deduct the necessary PAYE tax and National Insurance contributions from the payment for services provided. It does not infer any employment relationship.

Since 2017, 4 workers hired directly have been found to be in scope and we are making appropriate tax and NI deductions.

Question reference: S5W-25709

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 22 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it collects regarding the (a) tax-domicile and (b) residency status of the interim and contingent workers that it hires where the role is filled by (i) a supplier and (ii) the worker directly.

Question reference: S5W-25707

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Derek Mackay on 22 October 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many interim and contingent workers it has conducted an IR35 assessment for in each month since April 2017, and of those how many were (a) in and (b) out of scope.