Parliamentary questions

Mark Griffin

2,186 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

1 Dec 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-19399 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 November 2018, what information it receives from the DWP in the event that someone, who was receiving carer's allowance and living in Scotland on the qualifying dates for carer’s allowance supplement for the pur…

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Scottish Government doesn’t receive any information from the DWP about clients who may have been overpaid Carer’s Allowance.

1 Dec 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government further to the answer to question S5W-19399 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 5 November 2018, how many (a) payments of carer's allowance supplement have been recovered and (b) times the recovery process has been initiated.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: No payments of Carer’s Allowance Supplement have been recovered and a recovery process has not been initiated for any payments.

30 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what review and assessment it has carried out of the effectiveness of the Universal Credit Scottish choices scheme.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-20328 on 12 December 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusin…

30 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the social return on investment of the Universal Credit Scottish choices scheme.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Scottish Government is currently considering the best approach to evaluate the Universal Credit Scottish choices. We intend to set out our plans for this in more detail next year.

29 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-19666 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 13 November 2018, whether it will explain in more detail the reasons for suppressing some of the monitoring data; how it assessed that publishing the data would present a risk of possible disclosure, and what the …

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018 impose obligations on the use of all personal data held by the Scottish Government. They require personal data to be processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security a…

28 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many members of the Social Security Scotland (a) senior management team and (b) executive advisory body identify as black or minority ethnic (BME).

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: At present, no members of the Social Security Scotland Senior Management Team or Executive Advisory Body have self-declared as identifying as black or minority ethnic.

28 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S5W-19085 and S5W-19086 by Jamie Hepburn on 24 October and 13 November 2018 respectively, in light of the report, Scotland’s Devolved Employment Services, not setting out this data, whether it will provide the information that was requested and confir…

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: I refer to the answer to S5W-19086. The Scottish Government will publish national level spend detail on Fair Start Scotland in due course. The Scottish Fiscal Commission will publish their next forecasts of Fair Start Scotland expenditure on 12 December to ac…

28 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much (a) its Social Security directorate and (b) Social Security Scotland (i) paid to the DWP (A) in 2017-18 and (B) since April 2018 and (ii) expects to pay to the DWP in (aa) 2018-19 and (bb) 2019-20, broken down by cost type.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The following tables reflect actual and forecast payments to DWP: Payments for Implementation costs (actual and indicative) to DWP from Social Security Directorate Payment 17-18 (actual) £3.5 million (inc VAT) 18-19 (actual to date covers period Apri…

26 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when it will hold its planned summit on minority ethnic employment and enterprise in 2018, and whether this will take place before the end of the year.

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: The Scottish Government is holding a Race Equality Action Plan (REAP) Conference 11 December 2018 to update stakeholders on progress of actions in the REAP, including in relation to employment and work. This will also be a spring board for organising the summ…

23 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-19500 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 November 2018, whether the DWP is aware of its ambition to extend winter fuel payment to families with severely disabled children.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The Scottish Government set out its' ambition to extend Winter Fuel Payments to families with disabled children on the higher rate of DLA as part of the Consultation on Social Security in Scotland in July 2016. The commitment to extending winter fuel payment…

23 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02679 by Jeane Freeman on 28 September 2016, how many families would currently benefit from extending eligibility for Winter Fuel Payments to families with children in receipt of the highest care component of the Disability Living Allowance.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Details of the number of children receiving the highest care component of Disability Living Allowance and living in Scotland are published by the Department for Work and Pensions on their Stat-Xplore website. The most recent data published by DWP showed that …

23 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-19205 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 23 November 2018, how the enquiries and complaints were categorised, and how many enquiries and complaints were in each of these categories.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: The categorised numbers of enquiries and complaints received in relation to Carer’s Allowance Supplement (CAS) are detailed in the following tables. Enquiries General advice on CAS 8193 Requests for progress on CAS payments 1411 Signpost to DWP 611 To…

22 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it defines inflation for the purposes of section 81(4) of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Under section 81(5)(b) of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018, Scottish Ministers must publish a statement explaining how they have calculated inflation. In line with our commitment to annually uprate the Carer’s Allowance Supplement we will publish the s…

22 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has not commenced sections 77 and 78 of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 in respect of carer's and funeral expense assistance.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Sections 77 and 78 relate to uprating of devolved social security assistance. Carer’s Allowance will be uprated (in line with inflation) this coming spring, and we intend to lay the necessary legislation early in the new year. This is unrelated to sections 7…

21 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what risks or issues senior responsible and accountable officers on the social security programme board have escalated to (a) the relevant corporate board or executive team and (b) ministers, and what the outcome of each of these was.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: To date no risks or issues have been escalated by the responsible and accountable officers on the Social Security Programme Board to the Scottish Government Corporate Board, Executive Team or Ministers. We can confirm that the Social Security Programme has we…

21 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government which (a) "go" and (b) "no go" gates the Social Security Programme Board is expected to give a formal view on in the year ahead; which it has given a formal view on, and what these views were.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: In 2019, the Social Security Programme Board is expected to give a formal view on the Go/No Go for Best Start Grant – Phase 2, Funeral Expense Assistance and Young Carer Grant. The Social Security Programme Board has already provided a formal view on Carer’s…

21 Nov 2018 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will rule out the delivery of Personal Independence Payment and Disability Living Allowance by the DWP under agency arrangements.

15 Nov 2018 · SPCB Oral Question

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what employment schemes it runs for offenders in order to improve their skills, reduce reoffending and increase its recruitment of ex-offenders.

1 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when sections 12, 13 and 14 of the Social Security Act 2018 will be commenced.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: These sections will be commenced when it is appropriate to do so and in line with the timescales for delivery of the disability benefits.

1 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that there is sufficient investment in healthcare infrastructure to deliver the planned increased supply of organs for transplantation following any changes in organ donation legislation.

Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: The proposals in the Human Tissue (Authorisation) (Scotland) Bill will contribute to the wider package of measures already in place or underway to increase donation and transplantation under the Donation and Transplantation Plan for Scotland. The rationale a…

1 Nov 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has made of any infrastructure and capacity implications for transplantation services arising from the implementation of an opt-out organ donation system, and what plans it has to address these.

Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-19448 on 6 November 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusines…

31 Oct 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what Social Security Scotland's staffing costs were in (a) September and (b) October 2018.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: These were £0.6m for September 2018 and estimated to be £0.7m for October 2018.

30 Oct 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many applicants to the Social Security Scotland Executive Advisory Body made an application noting a potential "Conflict of Interest and other Ministerial Public Appointments held", and what roles were listed by applicants in response to questions of this nature.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Social Security Scotland received sixteen applications which declared a potential “Conflict of Interest and other Ministerial Public Appointments held”. We are unable to release information in relation to the roles listed by applicants in order to prevent th…

30 Oct 2018 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many people applied to be on Social Security Scotland's Executive Advisory Body, and how many had a protected characteristic, broken down by characteristic.

Answer · Shirley-Anne Somerville: Social Security Scotland received 41 applications for positions on its Executive Advisory Body. The following tables reflect what candidates have declared in our Equalities Monitoring forms in relation to protected characteristics. Please note that counts of…