Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many (a) press, (b) media and (c) other communications posts there are in his Department; and what the salary band is for each post.
Answered by Ian Murray - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Scotland Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the potential impact of recent changes to welfare provision on families in Scotland.
Answered by Ian Murray - Secretary of State for Scotland
Scotland needs both its governments to step up and fix a broken welfare system.
We will ensure the system protects the most vulnerable who can’t work, while supporting people who can into work.
But in Scotland there are people who want to work but can’t because they are stuck on an NHS waiting list, employability services have faced cuts, college places are at a decade low and the equivalent of a large secondary school’s worth of kids leave school every year without qualifications, and there is a declared housing crisis in Scotland - does the hon Member really think that speaks well of the SNP’s record?
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many and what proportion of the (a) primary and (b) secondary legislation sponsored by (i) their Department or (ii) their predecessor Department has undergone a post legislative review in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Alister Jack
This information is only held for internal administrative reasons and may not be exhaustive, for example, due to machinery of government changes to departmental structure in the past decade.
In 2018, the Scotland Office completed post legislative scrutiny of the Scotland Act 2012. A link to the review can be found here:
The Scotland Office has not completed any post legislative scrutiny of secondary legislation.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many post legislative reviews (a) their Department or (b) their predecessor Department has undertaken on (i) primary and (ii) secondary legislation in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alister Jack
This information is only held for internal administrative reasons and may not be exhaustive, for example, due to machinery of government changes to departmental structure in the past decade.
In 2018, the Scotland Office completed post legislative scrutiny of the Scotland Act 2012. A link to the review can be found here:
The Scotland Office has not completed any post legislative scrutiny of secondary legislation.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many pieces of (a) primary and (b) secondary legislation their Department has sponsored in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Alister Jack
This information is only held for internal administrative reasons and may not be exhaustive, for example, due to machinery of government changes to departmental structure in the past decade.
In the last 10 years, the Scotland Office has sponsored two pieces of primary legislation. These were the Scotland Acts of 2012 and 2016.
The Scotland Office has also sponsored 91 pieces of secondary legislation in this period. This figure includes Scotland Act Orders, which the department outlines in our annual reports. Scotland Act Orders implement, update or adjust Scotland's devolution settlement. The Scotland Office have recently sponsored Scotland Act Orders relating to Civil Partnerships, Child Disability Payment and Adult Disability Payment.
The breakdown of the secondary legislation we have sponsored is outlined below:
Year | Number of pieces of secondary legislation sponsored by the Scotland Office |
2012 | 6 |
2013 | 8 |
2014 | 10 |
2015 | 15 |
2016 | 8 |
2017 | 7 |
2018 | 11 |
2019 | 7 |
2020 | 6 |
2021 | 10 |
2022 | 3 pieces so far this year. |
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to the Answer of 4 November 2015 to Question 14206, when he first saw draft copies of his Department's accounts for (a) July to September 2014, (b) October to December 2014 and (c) January to March 2015.
Answered by David Mundell
This Government publishes an unprecedented range of data. This represents a significant task for Departments. We remain committed to publishing data in a timely fashion, and further transparency data will be published in due course.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what steps he is taking to ensure regular publication of his Department's quarterly accounts.
Answered by David Mundell
This Government publishes an unprecedented range of data. This represents a significant task for Departments. We remain committed to publishing data in a timely fashion, and further transparency data will be published in due course.
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2015 to Question 14925, what for reason his Department's quarterly report of transparency information from July to September 2014 took four months longer to prepare than the report on that information from January to March 2015.
Answered by David Mundell
I refer the hon Member to my answer of 9 November 2015 (UIN 14925).
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to the Answer of 9 November 2015 to Question 14925, on publications, what deadlines his Department places on its publication of transparency information.
Answered by David Mundell
I refer the hon Member to my answer of 9 November 2015 (UIN 14925).
Asked by: Kirsty Blackman (Scottish National Party - Aberdeen North)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to his Answer of 4 November 2015 to Question 14206, for what reason his Department's quarterly report of transparency information from October to December 2014 was not ready for publication until 15 October 2015.
Answered by David Mundell
The Government publishes an unprecedented range of Transparency data. This is a significant task across all Departments, and Information is published as quickly as is possible.