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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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

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Question reference: S5W-22511

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the projected staffing requirements are of (a) Social Security Scotland and (b) its social security directorate for each quarter of 2019-20.

Projected Staffing Requirements - Social Security Scotland

The figures in the following table are the projected Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff numbers for Social Security Scotland for each quarter of financial year 2019-20. These figures are based on currently available staffing forecasts and process development information and may be subject to revision and remodelling as benefit requirements become fully scoped and rollout draws near.

Quarter 1	450 – 500 FTE
Quarter 2	550 – 600 FTE
Quarter 3	650 – 700 FTE
Quarter 4	700 – 750 FTE

Projected Staffing Requirements - Social Security Directorate

The projected workforce staffing requirements for the directorate remain subject to workforce planning discussions and have yet to be confirmed.

Question reference: S5W-22515

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many social security (a) client and (b) official errors it has recorded, and how many of the official errors were the result of (i) staff, (ii) technical issues with IT systems and (iii) erroneous data provided by another government department.

To meet disclosure control requirements the following numbers have been rounded to the nearest five observations.

Between 1 September 2018 and 5 April 2019 the Agency recorded less than five client errors and around 10 official errors from over 60,000 payments that have been made.

Of the official errors recorded, around five were from either staff error or as a result of an IT system error and around five are currently subject to investigation in order to be classified.

Question reference: S5W-22613

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to publish all advice notes on social security matters produced by the Disability and Carers Benefits Advisory Group.

Question reference: S5W-22517

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the comment in its cold spell and winter heating assistance position paper regarding Winter Heating Assistance that "No one will lose out as a result of the replacement payment", whether this commitment applies to people who (a) are currently entitled and (b) will have future entitlement to the benefit.

Question reference: S5W-22516

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the comment in its cold spell and winter heating assistance position paper regarding Winter Heating Assistance that "No one will lose out as a result of the replacement payment", whether the value of the assistance will be maintained in (a) cash and (b) real terms.

Question reference: S5W-22533

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 04 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comments by the Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People at the meeting of the Social Security Committee on 4 October 2018 (Official Report, col.6), what progress has been made to ensure that video recordings of face-to-face disability assessments are provided for deaf people and BSL users.

Question reference: S5W-22222

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take where a majority of responses to any of the questions set out at section 5 of its consultation on disability assistance state that they disagree with its position.

Question reference: S5W-22220

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 April 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 15 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its comment that “for Disability Assistance for Children and Young People, and Disability Assistance for Older People, it is our intention to make decisions about entitlement using existing supporting information only and not through face-to-face assessments”, whether it has identified exceptional circumstances under which it would expect such assessments should be carried out and, if so, what these are, and for what reason it considers that these would make a face-to-face assessment necessary.

Page 23 of the consultation on Disability Assistance sets out our intended approach to the decision making process for children, young people and older people. Policy development regarding face-to-face assessments for children, young people and older people will be informed by consultation responses.

The consultation can be found at: https://consult.gov.scot/social-security/improving-disability-assistance/

Question reference: S5W-22264

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 4 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many young people will be required to apply for DWP-delivered personal independence payment instead of disability assistance following its decision not to open eligibility for new applicants aged 16 or over.

The Disability Assistance consultation sets out the Scottish Government’s proposed policy approach to replacements for Disability Living Allowance (DLA), Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Attendance Allowance (AA). The consultation document states that Scottish Government does not intend to open eligibility to new DACYP applicants age 16 or over due to the potential disruption involved with applying for the benefit then being required to apply for a working age benefit sooner after.

Stat-Xplore provides a guided way to explore DWP benefit statistics, currently holding data relating to 16 different benefits/programmes. Information on the volumes of PIP claims currently in payment to Scottish 16 and 17 year olds is publically available via this website.

Question reference: S5W-22300

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 2 April 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-22087 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 March 2019, what the working age client data was.