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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 16 August 2025
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Displaying 1311 contributions

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Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Minister for Parliamentary Business

Meeting date: 7 February 2023

Jeremy Balfour

Would it be possible for you to write to committee after the summer recess, perhaps, to give us an update on where we are on that?

Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee

Instruments subject to Negative Procedure

Meeting date: 31 January 2023

Jeremy Balfour

SSI 2023/8 is a consequence of rushed legislation going through the Parliament previously. Perhaps it is a lesson that we should not pass emergency legislation unless there is an emergency, and we should have more scrutiny of legislation when it is going through.

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Budget 2023-24

Meeting date: 19 January 2023

Jeremy Balfour

I have a final question on this area. As you will be aware, the customer charter has to be renewed in January next year, and you will obviously go through a consultation process in that regard. Do you know when the committee will be able to scrutinise any alterations or changes to the charter before it is laid before Parliament? Will you give a guarantee that there will be an opportunity for the committee to take evidence on any such changes before that happens?

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Budget 2023-24

Meeting date: 19 January 2023

Jeremy Balfour

As you mentioned, voluntary organisations are funded not only through your budget but through budgets across different Government portfolios. What efforts are made across Government to adopt the fair funding practice that SCVO has outlined? Who co-ordinates that to ensure that organisations do not miss out on funding from one department because they already get money from another department? Is that co-ordinated by the finance team or within your department?

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Budget 2023-24

Meeting date: 19 January 2023

Jeremy Balfour

Thank you.

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Budget 2023-24

Meeting date: 19 January 2023

Jeremy Balfour

Just before Christmas, the committee took evidence from David Wallace of Social Security Scotland. One of the issues that came up was the processing time. The charter contains a 10-day processing time measure, which he said would be “incredibly challenging” to meet. It was clear that he felt that, moving forward, that would not be met consistently. This will feed into my final question in a moment. Are you going to look at that timescale? There is presumably no point in having a timescale that nobody is ever going to hit.

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Budget 2023-24

Meeting date: 19 January 2023

Jeremy Balfour

That would be helpful.

I suspect that I know the answer to this next question, but I will ask it anyway. There was quite a long debate when the Social Security (Scotland) Bill was going through Parliament on whether the charter should have statutory or legal authority. As a Parliament, we decided against that. Will the review look at that aspect to see whether the charter should be given some statutory context?

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Budget 2023-24

Meeting date: 19 January 2023

Jeremy Balfour

Cabinet secretary, you will appreciate that I have asked you and the finance secretary on a number of occasions about specific discussions that you have had with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations on three-year funding. I know from previous answers that you and your officials regularly meet the SCVO. Has three-year funding been discussed specifically with the SCVO? What on-going discussions with the organisation are planned on that issue?

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Budget 2023-24

Meeting date: 19 January 2023

Jeremy Balfour

If you follow Social Security Scotland on Twitter, you will see that many people are saying that the targets are being very badly missed, and there are long delays. The number of people who are now having to get a reconsideration is growing, so we are not getting it right first time.

Do you think that we need to set realistic targets so that the public have a genuine understanding of what they can expect from Social Security Scotland? I think that, at present, there is a perception that, in many cases, the agency is failing to make a decision on time and failing to get it right.

Social Justice and Social Security Committee

Budget 2023-24

Meeting date: 19 January 2023

Jeremy Balfour

Good morning, cabinet secretary and officials.

As you will know, we have had quite a lot of discussions about the Scottish welfare fund over the years with regard to how it is delivered by local authorities. Post-pandemic, as we come out of Covid, has there been any thinking from the Scottish Government about how we deliver that benefit and whether the way that it is currently delivered, through local authorities, is the best way to ensure that it is targeted at the greatest possible number of people? Is there any review of how we deliver that payment?