Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-23740

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 26 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-23316 by Jamie Hepburn on 6 June 2019, what the median salary was for each of the public bodies.

Table 1 gives the median salary for each of the public bodies referred to in S5W-23316. The following data given is reliant on voluntary self-declaration of disabled or non-disabled status.

Table 1

Median Salary as at 31 Dec 2018		Disabled	Non-Disabled	All Staff
SG Core	SG Core	£33,094	£37,847	£36,328
Executive Agency	Accountant in Bankruptcy	£25,559	£27,515	£27,515
	Disclosure Scotland	£20,732	£26,538	£23,409
	Education Scotland	£41,243	£62,379	£60,379
	Student Awards Agency for Scotland	£26,538	£28,891	£23,409
	Scottish Public Pensions Agency	£22,071	£24,580	£20,732
	Social Security Scotland	£24,580	£33,129	£24,580
	Transport Scotland	£33,094	£40,305	£40,305
Non-ministerial offices	Food Standards Scotland	£27,515	£31,693	£27,515
Non-ministerial offices	National Records of Scotland	£27,515	£31,515	£28,891

Question reference: S5W-23774

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-23532 by Jeane Freeman on 13 June 2019, whether Social Security Scotland will meet the cost of, or refund, any fees incurred while obtaining certification or evidence for the purposes of supporting an application for disability assistance.

Question reference: S5W-23654

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-19213 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 25 October 2018, whether it will update the table to provide details of which private sector companies are suppliers to the Social Security Directorate and Social Security Scotland, broken down by whether they are (a) disability confident, (b) carer positive and (c) living wage accredited.

The suppliers referred to are listed in the following table with their current status in the following categories: (a) disability confident, (b) carer positive and (c) living wage accredited, Suppliers awarded contracts since October 2018 are now listed.

Suppliers	disability confident	carer positive	living wage accredited
28 York Place Limited	No	No	No
2i Limited	No	No	Yes
2T Security Limited	No	No	No
Aberdeen PA Limited t/a Scottish PA Network	No	No	No
Albion Trust Management Limited	No	No	No
ACCA	No	No	Yes
APS Group (Scotland) Limited	Yes	No	Yes
ASA Recruitment	No	No	Yes
Association for Project Management (APM)	Yes	No	No
Azure Support Services Limited	No	No	No
Calton Heritage & Learning Centre	No	No	No
Capita Business Services Limited - SWAN	No	No	Yes
Capita Resourcing Limited	No	No	No
Capital Solutions	No	No	Yes
Carnegie Enterprise Limited	No	No	Yes
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)	Yes	No	Yes
CIPD Enterprises Limited	No	No	No
CIPFA Business Limited	No	No	No
Club Class Catering	No	No	No
Computacenter United Kingdom Limited	Yes	No	No
Cordia	Yes	No	No
Craigforth HCAS Limited	No	No	No
Daisy Communications Limited	No	No	No
Dcal Consulting Limited	No	No	No
Demys Limited	No	No	No
Diona (UK) Limited	No	No	Yes
Dod's Parliamentary Communications	No	No	No
DXC Technology	No	No	No
Eagle Couriers Scotland Limited	Yes	No	No
Edinburgh Training & Conference Venue	No	No	No
Elite Training & Consultancy (Scotland) Limited	No	No	No
ExecSpace Limited	No	No	No
Fannan & Scott Limited t/a Northern Services	No	No	No
Flexiform Business Furniture Limited	No	No	Yes
FPSG Connect Limited	No	No	Yes
Gartner UK Limited	No	No	Yes
Gate Worldwide Limited, The	No	No	No
Global Language Services Limited	No	No	Yes
Government Knowledge Training Limited	No	No	No
Grand Central Hotel (Glasgow)	No	No	No
Harvey Nash Consulting (Scotland) Limited	Yes	No	Yes
Heart of Midlothian Plc	No	No	Yes
Holyrood Communications Limited	No	No	No
Horsecross Arts (Perth) Limited	No	No	No
HP Inc. UK Limited	No	No	No
i Train Scotland	No	No	No
IBM UK Limited	No	No	Yes
IET Services Limited	No	No	No
Insight Direct UK Limited	No	No	No
Institute for Management Studies (Scotland), The	No	No	No
Jonathan Elliott t/a Talk Action	No	No	No
Jones Lang La Salle Limited	No	No	Yes
KSO Research Limited	No	No	Yes
LA Catering	No	No	No
Leidos Innovations UK Limited	No	No	No
Lesar UK Limited	No	No	No
Live Borders Limited	No	No	No
MacRoberts, Solicitors	Yes	No	Yes
Melting Pot	No	No	Yes
Misco UK Limited	No	No	No
Mitrefinch Limited	No	No	No
Morton Fraser	No	No	No
Neatebox Limited	Yes	No	No
New Ricoh UK Limited	No	No	No
nuVideo Limited	No	No	No
ORB International	No	No	No
ORB International KMS Limited	No	No	No
Parity Professionals Limited	No	No	Yes
Plain English Campaign Limited	No	No	No
Pluralsight LLC	No	No	No
QA Limited	Yes	No	No
Quo Imus Limited T/A QI Consulting	No	No	No
Radisson SAS Edinburgh Hotel	No	No	No
Ridgeway Consulting	No	No	No
Ross Promotional Products Limited	No	No	No
Rostec Consultancy Limited	No	No	No
Salesforce.com Sarl	No	No	No
Sapphire Technologies Limited	No	No	No
Scottish Storytelling Centre	No	No	No
Security Services Group	No	No	No
Service Graphics Limited	No	No	No
Sopra Steria Limited	No	No	Yes
Spring Technology Staffing Services Limited	No	No	Yes
STUC Training Limited	No	No	Yes
Taylor McKenzie Research & Marketing Limited	No	No	Yes
Tayside Contracts	Yes	No	Yes
The Hub Events Limited	No	No	No
The OR Society	No	No	No
The Stationery Office (TSO)	No	No	No
TMP (UK) Limited	No	No	No
TNS UK Limited t/a TNS BMRB	No	No	No
Trustmarque Solutions Limited	No	No	No
Viking Direct Limited	No	No	No
XMA Limited	No	No	No
Since October 2018
Alan McGrgor & Associates	No	No	No
Allpay Limited	No	No	Yes
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Inc	No	No	No
Barclaycard Commercial Payments	Yes	No	Yes
Capital Document Solutions	No	No	No
Civic Computing Ltd	No	No	Yes
Deloitte LLP	No	No	Yes
Diona UK Ltd	No	No	No
Dovetail Enterprises (1993) Ltd	No	No	No
Ent Serv UK Ltd	No	No	No
Equifax Ltd	No	No	Yes
Global Connections Scotland Ltd	No	No	No
GMG Risk Strategies Ltd	No	No	Yes
Government Digital Service	Yes	No	Yes
IFF Research Ltd	No	No	No
Inch Architecture	No	No	No
KPMG LLP	Yes	No	Yes
LeasePlan UK Ltd	No	No	Yes
Lorien	Yes	No	Yes
MD Consulting Ltd	No	No	No
Michael Laing Architects	No	No	No
NCC Group Cyber Security Services	No	No	No
New Verve Consulting Ltd	No	No	No
Northern Services	No	No	No
Ordinance Survey	No	No	No
Pertemps	No	No	No
QA Symphony	No	No	No
Rocket Science (UK) Ltd	No	No	No
Royal Mail	No	No	No
Softcat	No	No	Yes
Softelligence UK Ltd	No	No	No
Venesky Brown	No	No	No
Whitespace (Scotland) Ltd	No	No	No

Question reference: S5W-23768

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether the advocacy service for the Scottish Social Security system invitation to tender has been issued and, if (a) so, on what date and (b) not, when it will do so.

Question reference: S5W-23767

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the publication of the contract notice for the advocacy service for the Scottish Social Security system did not take place on 3 June 2019.

Question reference: S5W-23679

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 19 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-23502 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 6 June 2019, in light of the responses to questions S5W-23030 and S5W-23034 not containing the information that was requested, whether it will confirm when analysis of all relevant legislation, regulations, guidance and case law began or was commissioned.

Question reference: S5W-23678

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 07 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 19 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-23515 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 6 June 2019, whether the number of roles has been modelled by the programme as part of its service design for disability assistance.

Information regarding staffing, including disability assistance, is available in the Outline Business Case for the Social Security Agency in Scotland published in April 2017, which is based on existing service design in DWP ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/outline-business-case-agency-social-security-scotland/ ). The Social Security Programme is currently developing its own service design for disability assistance, including roles such as case managers.

Question reference: S5W-23775

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 14 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-23532 by Jeane Freeman on 13 June 2019, whether the GP contract limits the fees that can be charged.

The GP contract recognises that GPs perform some services for their patients that are not covered by the contract. As such the contract does not limit or set fees for these services.

Where a patient requests a report or certificate falling outside the GP contract, the BMA advises that the fee set should be reasonable, transparent and justifiable. Patients should also be forewarned of the fee level before the service is agreed and provided.

Question reference: S5W-23666

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how much the Social Security Directorate has paid to IBM (a) under the Low Income Benefits Agile Service Design contract since 1 November 2018 and (b) for other services.

Question reference: S5W-23653

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 June 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 18 June 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when Social Security Scotland will report to provide transparency on expenditure over £25,000.

For 2018-19 (1 September 2018 – 31 March 2019) Social Security Scotland operating expenditure, excluding payroll, was met by the Social Security Directorate and then recharged to Social Security Scotland monthly. All payments over £25,000 are then included in the Scottish Government spend over £25,000 publication for the 2018-19 financial year.

For 2019-20 and thereafter, Social Security Scotland will report on expenditure over £25,000 separately from the Social Security Directorate, in accordance with the timescales set out in the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.

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