Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-06322

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 30 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to use new social security powers that have been devolved.

The Scottish Government has always been clear that we will use our new powers to build a fairer social security system, founded on the principles of dignity, fairness and respect. We have already set out some of the steps that we will take to achieve this. For example:-

We will introduce a new Best Start Grant which will extend support for qualifying families, from the £500 payable only for the first child under the existing UK Government Sure Start Maternity Grant to £1,100 for the first child and £800 for second and subsequent children over the term of the benefit;

We will effectively abolish the UKG’s punitive bedroom tax in Scotland as soon as we can;

We will extend Winter Fuel Payments to families with severely disabled children; and

We will use our limited powers over Universal Credit to offer Scottish claimants a choice over how often they receive their payments and if their rent is paid direct to their social landlord.

In terms of immediate next steps - in the coming weeks, we will publish the independent analysis report on our social security consultation and provide a Scottish Government response to the main findings.

We will launch our recruitment drive for the ‘Experience Panels’, to involve at least 2,000 people who have recent experience of receiving benefits in helping to design and test the new system to ensure it works for them.

And, we have published our consultation on the Universal Credit (Claims and Payments) (Scotland) Regulations, to seek people's views on how we might best use the important flexibilities available to us - on the frequency of payments and direct payments to landlords - to make sure that the delivery of Universal Credit in Scotland will be better suited to meet the needs of the people of Scotland.

In all of this work, our overriding priority is to ensure the safe and secure transfer of benefits to those who receive them and to ensure that no-one slips through the net or misses a payment.

This is something that many stakeholders have stressed to us - it is much more important to have a safe and secure transition over a periods of years, than to risk failure by adhering to arbitrary, politically driven timescales.

Question reference: S5O-00542

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 December 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the implementation of its Equally Safe strategy.

Question reference: S5O-00276

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 October 2016
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 2 November 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the UK Government's response to its proposals for employment support programmes.

On 5 October 2016 I advised the Scottish Parliament that Damian Green, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions had confirmed in a letter to me that the extent to which the UK Government’s benefit conditionality and sanctions would apply to devolved employment services was a matter for the Scottish Government.

Since that time and following the most recent meeting of the Joint Ministerial Group on Welfare on 11 October 2016, the Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell responded to a question in the House of Commons confirming that the UK Government would respect the desire of the Scottish Government to deliver devolved employment support on a voluntary basis.

I welcome that statement and now expect the UK Government to follow through on that publically stated position.

Question reference: S5F-00430

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 31 October 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 November 2016

To ask the First Minister what analysis the Scottish Government has conducted into the contribution that migrants make to Scotland.

Question reference: S5O-00227

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 September 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 October 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in establishing routine enquiry of abuse in the NHS.

Routine enquiry of domestic abuse is an important means of supporting diagnosis and assessment of peoples’ needs to ensure most appropriate treatment and care. In NHS Scotland, it is being implemented within the priority settings of maternity, mental health, substance misuse, A&E, community nursing and sexual health services, as part of our overall approach to intervening early in cases of domestic abuse and ensuring victims are supported. NHS Health Scotland is supporting health boards to establish routine enquiry across these settings through its Gender Based Violence and Health Programme

To date, routine enquiry of abuse in the key priority settings has been introduced by some health boards and approximately 4000 staff have completed the national training programme.

Question reference: S5O-00134

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what impact withdrawal from the EU would have on the Digital Scotland's superfast broadband project.

Question reference: S5W-01573

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 10 August 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the impact will be of the ban on cash payments for scrap metal on smaller metal dealers and how it will monitor this.

Metal theft is a severe problem in Scotland. That is why we included, in the Air Weapons and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2015, provisions to tighten up the controls on the metal dealer licensing regime.

There was widespread support for the ban on cash payments. Which in order to be fully effective needs to apply to all metal dealers.

Following extensive awareness raising, the bulk of the metal dealer provisions in the 2015 Act, including the ban on cash transactions, will come into force on 1 September 2016.

The 2015 Act also provides Scottish Ministers the power to establish a national register of metal dealers and itinerant metal dealers via secondary legislation which will allow us to monitor metal dealer numbers. The Scottish Government is currently considering this.

Question reference: S5W-01449

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what action it plans over the next five years take to encourage learning foreign languages in (a) schools and (b) communities.

The Scottish Government is committed to full implementation of the 1+2 languages policy in schools by 2021, leading to more and earlier language learning, as a normal part of a broad, relevant school education. We will continue to support local authorities in securing this significant change in the coming five years, including funding. Since 2013 we have already provided £16.2m of additional developmental funding and have supported Scotland’s National Centre for Languages (SCILT) and the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools (CISS), which both provide practical support for language learning and teaching. A Strategic Implementation Group leads this process and is working with local authorities, Education Scotland, SCILT and other bodies in planning, delivery and raising expectations of enhanced language learning in schools.

Scottish Government’s strategy New Scots: Integrating Refugees in Scotland’s Communities has an active group for Education which works to identify the role of refugees in promoting linguistic diversity in Scotland’s communities.

Question reference: S5W-01450

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many pupils will be taught a foreign language in 2016-17.

Question reference: S5W-01451

Asked by: Ruth Maguire, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 July 2016
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 July 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers the potential benefits are to young people of learning a foreign language in terms of (a) future employment prospects and (b) increasing cultural awareness.

The Scottish Government recognises that language learning offers key life skills and should be available to all as part of school education.

Specifically language skills help young people’s future employment prospects by equipping them with a range of skills which employers value highly: the ability to communicate effectively, but also cultural understanding and an openness to new experiences and global opportunities. Many global companies now view language skills as essential to career development.

Young people learning languages more effectively therefore underpins a more successful Scotland, with opportunities for all to flourish through increasing internationalisation and sustainable economic growth.

Language learning also contributes to an increasing cultural awareness, helping people understand how to live and work with people from different backgrounds. The benefit to the individual is complemented by a wider societal impact, encouraging tolerance, awareness of the wider world and a greater understanding and respect of others’ beliefs and attitudes.

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