Questions and answers

Question reference: S6F-03764

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025

To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to the recent CBI report, which reportedly suggests that businesses are preparing to “cut staff and raise prices”.

Question reference: S6W-32843

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 21 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the potential cost to the public sector in Scotland of the UK Government's decision to raise employer national insurance contributions.

The Scottish Government published estimates of the impact of the increase in employer national insurance contributions on the public sector in Scotland on 20 November. While the information is incomplete, these estimates indicate the combined impact on the public sector and commissioned services could be well over £700 million.

If the UK Government’s reported allocation is all that is provided, that will mean the Chancellor will be short-changing services the public depend on by over £400 million.

We will continue to work with His Majesty’s Treasury, Local Government and portfolios to support an evidence-based approach and will update Parliament when new information is available.

Question reference: S6W-32844

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the potential cost to the third sector in Scotland of the UK Government's decision to raise employer national insurance contributions.

The diverse nature of the third sector means that the impacts of the increase to employers National Insurance contributions will vary by size and industry sector. However, SCVO has estimated that the cost to voluntary sector employers in Scotland is in the region of £75 million per year, plus inflation.

We will continue to work with His Majesty’s Treasury, portfolios and the sector to support an evidence-based approach and will update Parliament when new information is available.

Scottish Ministers continue to amplify the concerns of the third sector to the UK Government regarding the change to Employer National Insurance Contributions.

Question reference: S6W-32838

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Early Learning Payment Best Start Grants have been awarded in (a) Aberdeen and (b) Scotland since their introduction.

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods applications and payments.

Since the introduction of the Early Learning Payment in April 2019, 126,840 payments with a combined value of £34,465,468 were paid to eligible clients throughout Scotland by 30 September 2024.

Whilst the latest statistics do not contain the number of payments issued broken down by local authority area, the total value of payments issued to clients in Aberdeen City was £1,099,329 over the same period.

The next Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods publication, covering the period to the end of December 2024, will be published on 25 February 2025.

Question reference: S6W-32839

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many School Age Payment Best Start Grants have been awarded in (a) Aberdeen and (b) Scotland since their introduction.

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods applications and payments.

Since the introduction of the School Age Payment in June 2019, 123,140 payments with a combined value of £34,086,106 were paid to eligible clients throughout Scotland by 30 September 2024.

Whilst the latest statistics do not contain the number of payments issued broken down by local authority area, the total value of payments issued to clients in Aberdeen City was £1,065,673 over the same period.

The next Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods publication, covering the period to the end of December 2024, will be published on 25 February 2025.

Question reference: S6W-32837

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Pregnancy and Baby Payment Best Start Grants have been awarded in (a) Aberdeen and (b) Scotland since their introduction.

Social Security Scotland routinely releases information on Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods applications and payments.

Since the introduction of the Pregnancy and Baby Payment in December 2018, 97,685 payments with a combined value of £43,041,145 were paid to eligible clients throughout Scotland by 30 September 2024.

Whilst the latest statistics do not contain the number of payments issued broken down by local authority area, the total value of payments issued to clients in Aberdeen City was £1,371,294 over the same period.

The next Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods publication, covering the period to the end of December 2024, will be published on 25 February 2025.

Question reference: S6W-32840

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Best Start Grant Food Cards have been issued in (a) Aberdeen and (b) Scotland since their introduction.

Since the introduction of Best Start Foods, 107,428 Best Start Foods cards have been issued across Scotland. Of these cards, 3,545 have been issued to clients in Aberdeen City area.

These figures include each new card from August 2019 to the 10 January 2025 and include all cards issued. These include re-issues to the same client if required due to lost, damaged, or expired cards.

Best Start Food card volumes are not featured in our regular Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods publication. These figures have been compiled in response to this request and include dates not yet covered in our latest statistics.

The next Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods publication, covering the period to 31 December 2024, will be published on 25 February 2025.

Question reference: S6W-32842

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 16 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have received support through the Scottish Child Payment in (a) Aberdeen and (b) Scotland since its introduction.

Social Security Scotland routinely publishes information on Scottish Child Payment applications, payments and the number of children actively in receipt of the payment by local authority area.

While the latest statistics do not currently include information on the total number of children who have benefitted from Scottish Child Payment, they show that for Scotland, as of 30 September 2024, 325,790 children aged 0-15 years were actively benefitting from Scottish Child Payment. Of those children, 10,335 resided in Aberdeen City.

The next Scottish Child Payment publication, covering the period to the end of December 2024, will be published on 25 February 2025.

Question reference: S6W-32841

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 January 2025
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many Baby Boxes have been issued in (a) Aberdeen and (b) Scotland since their introduction.

Registration opened on 15 June 2017, and delivery of Baby Boxes nationwide began on 15 August 2017 for all babies born and resident in Scotland.

The total number of Baby Boxes issued since the introduction of the Baby Box programme up to 3 January 2025 is 324,968. We are unable to provide the number of Baby Boxes delivered in the Aberdeen area as we only record the number of Baby Boxes distributed by Health Board area. Since the start of the programme 35,278 Baby Boxes have been issued in NHS Grampian.

Question reference: S6W-32417

Asked by: Kevin Stewart, MSP for Aberdeen Central, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 December 2024
Current Status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 9 January 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to help households tackle the cost of living crisis.

The Scottish Government recognises the pressure on household budgets which is why in 2024-25 we continued to allocate around £3bn a year to policies which tackle poverty and help with the cost of living for households. This includes providing free bus travel for over 2 million people and continuing to invest in discretionary housing payments with £90.5m being made available in 2024-25.

Additionally in November we announced a £41 million package of support for people struggling with energy costs this winter. This includes: an additional £20 million which will be provided for the Scottish Welfare Fund, to enable councils to provide more vital support to people in crisis; an additional £20 million for the Warmer Homes Scotland Scheme, which helps people install energy efficiency measures and more efficient heating systems, saving on average around £300 per year in household energy bills, and making £1 million of grant-funding available to registered social landlords to fund work to help sustain tenancies.

The Scottish Government believes that a social tariff is the best way to ensure that energy consumers are protected against high costs and can afford all of their energy needs. The powers to implement a social tariff remain with the UK Government and we are committed to working closely with them to advocate for the delivery of a social tariff across Great Britain. We established a Social Tariff Working Group in November, bringing together stakeholders to co-design a deliverable social tariff policy, and will share the outputs from the group with UK Government as soon as possible.

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