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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-11055

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is monitoring the ethnicity of individuals participating in its Social Security Experience Panels and, if so, whether this data will be published.

Scottish Government researchers are now analysing the ‘About Your Benefits and You’ research. This research includes a survey and a series of focus groups across Scotland. The About Your Benefits and You survey asked for some demographic information from panel members (including age, gender, disability and caring status). This will be added to information gathered as part of the ‘Have Your Say’ panel registration process which collected information on additional support needs. This will start to build a picture of who our panel members are.

We will ask the panel members their religion, ethnicity and LGBT status at a later stage in the panel research. This is because we designed and tested the survey with panel members, and they asked that we do not collect this information at this early stage.

Scottish Government researchers are committed to equality monitoring as part of the Experience Panels. However, it is vital that we build trust with panel members, collecting demographic information sensitively and ensuring that panel members are involved in how and when demographic data is collected.

Question reference: S5W-11056

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether race equality has featured as a discussion in its Social Security Experience Panels and, if not, whether this topic will be addressed.

Scottish Government researchers have recently completed the ‘About Your Benefits and You’ research, the first piece of research carried out with panel members. This initial piece of research collected some demographic information from panel members, as well as helping us to understand in a bit more detail what panel members think works well in the current system, and where there is room for improvement.

This initial research did not specifically ask about race equality. However, the open nature of the survey questions and focus group discussions gave panel members the opportunity to discuss what is important to them. Scottish Government researchers are now analysing the results of the ‘About Your Benefits and You’ survey and focus group research.

The Experience Panels research project is longitudinal (follows panel members over a period of time) and equality monitoring will form an important part of this. The information collected from the About Your Benefits and You research will be used to develop a programme of work in collaboration with the Experience Panels that reflects what is important to our panel members.

Question reference: S5W-11034

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 01 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many mixed aged couples who are entitled to pension credit do not claim it, and what the value of this unclaimed pension credit is (a) in total and (b) on average.

Question reference: S5W-11053

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 13 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to prioritise addressing evidence gaps in relation to race and ethnicity detailed in Scotland's Equality Evidence Strategy 2017-2021.

As set out in the Equality Evidence Strategy, prioritising evidence gaps will take into account how important data will be in informing major policies, programmes and frameworks. The Race Equality Framework and the National Performance Framework are the starting points for the early years of the evidence strategy in relation to race and ethnicity. A Race Equality Action Plan setting out the key actions for this Parliamentary session will be published in 2017 and will further inform the Strategy’s priorities.

Question reference: S5W-11054

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 13 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the evidence gaps highlighted in Scotland's Equality Evidence Strategy 2017-2021, how it will fill these gaps to support the measurement of the impact of the planned introduction of the socio-economic duty across the public sector, and whether the gaps relevant to poverty and inequality will be filled prior to its planned introduction.

There are already a number of sources of evidence that can underpin the planned socio-economic duty. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) provides a highly effective localised data source on socio-economic disadvantage, and this has been complemented recently by commissioned work from David Simmonds Consultancy and Heriot-Watt University on small area estimates of income and poverty. Scottish Household Survey and the Labour Force Survey includes a range of data around employment, levels of skills and occupational sectors, and NHS Health Scotland produce data on health inequalities and outcomes by local authority and by SIMD categories. Administrative data held by public bodies can be added to these sources. There is therefore a range of evidence available for public bodies to deliver the planned socio-economic duty. However, the Equality Evidence Strategy sets out the process for further development of data on socio-economic status over the next four years.

Question reference: S5W-11052

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 September 2017
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 13 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its position as set out in Scotland's Equality Evidence Strategy 2017-2021, that “The Scottish Government cannot, and should not, take responsibility for attending to all evidence gaps”, what discussions it has had with relevant stakeholders to coordinate an approach to addressing these gaps.

The Equality Evidence Strategy is the start of a four year process aimed at strengthening the overall equality evidence base. It sets out the strategic approach to filling evidence gaps and outlines plans for future collaboration. How we do this will depend on the protected characteristic and the range of priorities and plans already in place. In most cases our intention is to hold workshops based on a protected characteristic to discuss priorities and a coordinated approach to filling the gaps. The first workshop will be to consider evidence gaps around gender and is scheduled for late October 2017.

Question reference: S5W-10868

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 12 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of it stating in the Privacy Impact Assessment for the Social Security (Scotland) Bill that it plans to bring forward amendments at Stage 2 to provide for new information sharing gateways, whether it is considering other major amendments to be introduced at Stage 2 and, if so, (a) on what subject areas, (b) for what reason these proposals were not published when the bill was introduced and (c) whether the proposals will be published before the Social Security Committee concludes its Stage 1 consideration.

The Privacy Impact Assessment for the Social Security (Scotland) Bill does note a proposal, by the Scottish Government, for a Stage 2 amendment on data sharing. This was included in the interests of openness and transparency. The Scottish Government intends to put the views of stakeholders first, by listening with interest to what they have to say throughout the Stage 1 process and will then reflect carefully - both on the evidence provided and the recommendations Committee makes in its Stage 1 report - before lodging amendments.

Question reference: S5W-10867

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 22 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 12 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of it stating in the Privacy Impact Assessment for the Social Security (Scotland) Bill that it plans to bring forward amendments at Stage 2 to provide for new information sharing gateways, (a) for what reason these proposals were not published when the bill was introduced and (b) whether the proposals will be published before the Social Security Committee concludes its Stage 1 consideration.

The Privacy Impact Assessment for the Social Security (Scotland) Bill does note a proposal, by the Scottish Government, for a Stage 2 amendment on data sharing. This was included in the interests of openness and transparency. This provision was not included in the Bill for system design reasons. If, by the conclusion of Committee’s stage 1 evidence gathering process and after the publication of Committee’s Stage 1 report, it is clear that new legislative gateways are needed to enable data sharing for devolved assistance, or existing gateways require amendment, then the Scottish Government will bring forward proposals during stage 2.

Question reference: S5O-01246

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 September 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action its Partnership Action for Continuing Employment has taken in Lanarkshire in the last year.

Question reference: S5W-10812

Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 16 August 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 6 September 2017

To ask the Scottish Government which companies received an invitation to tender for the Scottish Social Security Technical Delivery Support contract.

The ‘Scottish Social Security Technical Delivery Support’ requirement was cancelled. The procurement process which was issued via the Digital Marketplace for this project did not progress beyond selection Stage 1. There was no invitation to tender issued, no contract awarded and therefore there is no value to provide, no winning contractors and no start date for the provision of the services.