Seòmar agus comataidhean

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

Criathragan Hide all filters

Displaying 2047 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-20880

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 10 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20558 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 8 January 2019, whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding what alternatives to accessing DWP data it has considered in order to mitigate the two-child benefit cap, and for what reason it did not provide this information in its answer.

The two child limit is a UK Government policy which the Scottish Government has repeatedly called for to be scrapped. The changes announced by the UK Government last week show that it too now finally accepts that the policy is unfair. It should therefore scrap the cap for all families.

The Scottish Government plans to spend over £125m in 2018-19 mitigating the impact of UK Government welfare cuts and on measures to help protect people on low incomes. In 2020/21 UK Government cuts including the two child cap are expected to take around £3.7 billion out of the Scottish welfare system- with £92m in 2020-21 due to the two child limit and the Scottish Government cannot be expected to continually mitigate to fill that gap.

It is the policy of the Scottish Government to continue to call for the two child limit to be scrapped for all families. The Scottish Government would not request information from the DWP on mitigation as this is not an SG policy.

Question reference: S5W-20986

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that the Northern Ireland scheme, Make the Call, has generated £37 million in extra benefits for 7,765 people, and how this compares with the performance of the Financial Health Check Service.

Question reference: S5W-21079

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20835 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2019, whether any of the senior responsible officers have considered requests from other sources to release their respective reviews and, if so, what their response was.

Question reference: S5W-21081

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20835 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2019, whether any of the senior responsible officers have stated that they would wish to be consulted before recipients of the review share all or parts of its contents with others, and, if so, for which reviews.

Question reference: S5W-21003

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20757, by Aileen Campbell on 15 January 2019, whether it will provide the information that was requested regarding what procurement process was conducted for the provision of its Financial Health Check service.

Question reference: S5W-21010

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20752 by Aileen Campbell on 15 January 2019, how it will calculate the verified financial gain per (a) individual, (b) household and (c) benefit, and over what period of time it will assume the gain is for.

Question reference: S5W-21004

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20751, by Aileen Campbell on 15 January 2019, for what reason it does not plan to publish the service level agreement.

Question reference: S5W-21080

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20835 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2019, whether any of the reviews have been made available by their respective senior responsible officer (a) internally and (b) to the Social Security Programme Board and, if so, which reviews.

Question reference: S5W-21082

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-20835 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2019, whether a copy of each review has been lodged with its Programme and Project Management Centre of Expertise (PPM-CoE) so that it can identify and share the generic lessons learned and, if so, whether the PPM-CoE has copied summaries of the review recommendations to the relevant accountable officer.

Question reference: S5W-21046

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 17 January 2019
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 January 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many requests for re-determinations for Best Start Grant pregnancy and baby payments have been (a) made and (b) processed, and how many have resulted in a determination that (i) was the same and (ii) differed from the initial determination.

Official statistics, covering the first months of applications for the Best Start Grant, will be published in April 2019. More detailed analysis will be published in a quarterly publication series starting from August 2019. In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, care will be taken to ensure that these publications are produced to a level of quality that meets users’ needs. Published data will be subject to disclosure control methods to protect the confidentiality of the data. There will be scope to analyse redeterminations made, processed and the outcomes, if we are satisfied with the quality of the data and can safeguard the confidentiality of individuals.