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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-18780

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many Carer's Allowance claimants have an outstanding (a) overpayment and (b) fraud debt, broken down by the value of the debt.

The following table provides current data obtained from DWP on approximately how many claimants in Scotland have an outstanding overpayment of Carer’s Allowance and how many of these overpayments have been classified as fraud. The table also breaks down the figures by the value of the debt.

Total value of outstanding CA overpayment	Total volume of claimants with an overpayment of CA	Volume of claimants with a Fraud overpayment
Less than £1000	2900	200
£1000 - £5000	2500	300
Over £5000	700	200
Total	6100	700

Question reference: S5W-18779

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has assumed executive competence for handling pre-existing Carer's Allowance overpayment and fraud debt, and whether these debts are subject to (a) DWP recovery rules under agency arrangements or (b) Social Security Scotland procedures.

Question reference: S5W-18862

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Kate Forbes on 27 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much Council Tax Reduction Scheme support has gone unclaimed each year, and what information it has regarding how many people who were eligible for this failed to claim.

Question reference: S5W-18435

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 August 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people on the social security charter core group have a protected characteristic, broken down by characteristic.

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) prevent the publication of protected characteristics for small groups of people. Such data is sensitive and breaking down a group of 30 people by nine characteristics could lead to the identification of individuals. However we are able to provide more general information on the characteristics represented in the core group. It includes:

People with a disability (including mental, physical and learning)
Men and women
A range of ages
People with different sexual orientations
People who are married or in civil partnerships
People of different religions and beliefs
People with experience of all relevant benefits
People with fluctuating conditions
People with hearing impairments
People with visual impairments
Carers of both adults and disabled children
Rural and urban dwellers
People with intersecting characteristics (i.e. more than one of the above).

We are also working closely with stakeholders to ensure that the views of people from seldom heard or under-represented groups, including those with other protected characteristics, are strongly reflected in the charter.

Question reference: S5W-18721

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the budget is for Universal Credit (Scottish choices), and how much has been spent, broken down by (a) staffing costs, (b) communications, (c) payments to the DWP for (i) the flexibilities take up, (ii) training and (iii) implementation, and (d) other costs.

Universal Credit (UC) Scottish choices do not have a separate budget line in the Social Security budget. Costs are contained within the allocated budget for the Social Security Directorate. This includes all staffing and communications costs associated with UC Scottish choices.

The Scottish Government paid £529,785.58 to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in April 2018 for one-off implementation costs which included changes to the UC IT system and updates to DWP staff guidance and training.

The Scottish Government estimates ongoing operational costs to be up to
‎ £0.4 million in 2017-18; and up to £1.6 million in 2018-19. The Scottish Government will only pay for the actual number of UC Scottish choices offered and taken up. We expect to receive an invoice from the DWP shortly, based on actual take up rates covering the period 4 October 2017 (when the choices were first made available) to 31 March 2018.

Question reference: S5W-18821

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-16813 by Jeane Freeman on 5 June 2018, whether the provisions at chapter 5 will be commenced for each benefit at the point at which executive competence for the respective benefit transfers.

Question reference: S5W-18816

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will modify the backdate period of the Early Years Assistance (Best Start Grants) (Scotland) Regulations 2018 to 1 November 2018 to mitigate the risk that the DWP does not put in place the systems required to begin making payments.

Question reference: S5W-18817

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether expenditure on the Best Start Grant (Pregnancy and Baby Grant) will be demand-led.

Question reference: S5W-18818

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 17 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether entitlement to Best Start Grant (Early Learning and School Age Payments) will apply to children who meet early learning and school age once payments of the Best Start Grant (Pregnancy and Baby Grant) begin in 2018-19, and, if so, whether these payments will be made retrospectively.

The Best Start Grant is made up of 3 separate grants and an application is required for each grant. Implementation will be in 2 phases.

Social Security Scotland will accept applications from those eligible for the Pregnancy and Baby Grant before Christmas 2018.

Delivery of the Early Learning and School Age Grants will follow by Summer 2019. Applications for these grants will not be accepted beforehand. Once delivery has begun, payments will be made to those who are eligible on the date of application and will not be made retrospectively to those who may have qualified earlier.

Question reference: S5W-18614

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 September 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 September 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what Social Security Scotland statistics and delivery-focused research will be published by the Government Statistics, Social Research and the Operational Research Service in 2018-19.

As the executive competence for the administration of a benefit transfers to Scotland, Social Security Scotland will publish statistics for Scotland on that benefit. In line with the Code of Practice for Statistics, publication dates for statistics for Social Security Scotland from 2018 onwards will be pre-announced through a 12-month release calendar, giving a specific release date at least four weeks in advance where practicable.

The Experience Panels research plan for 2018-19 can be found on the Scottish Government website at the following link: https://beta.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/corporate-report/2017/06/social-security-scotland-bill-privacy-impact-assessment/documents/social-security-experience-panels-2018-2019-research-plan/social-security-experience-panels-2018-2019-research-plan/govscot%3Adocument . It contains estimated publication dates for each project. Please note these are subject to change.