Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at 12:48 pm on 19 December 2024.
Gordon MacDonald
Scottish National Party
12:48,
19 December 2024
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the announcement in its draft budget 2025-26 that it plans to mitigate the United Kingdom Government’s two-child benefit cap policy in Scotland, what it estimates the cost will be of doing so, per affected child. (S6O-04151)
Shirley-Anne Somerville
Scottish National Party
The universal credit child element is worth £287.92 per month for the first two children in a household. Our mitigation will seek to make a payment equal to the universal credit child element for each eligible third and subsequent child in a household that is impacted by the cap. At current levels, that would be almost £3,500 per child per year. The Child Poverty Action Group estimates that mitigating the two-child limit in Scotland could lift around 15,000 children out of poverty.
Gordon MacDonald
Scottish National Party
The UK Labour Government, which promised change, has left it to the devolved Governments to mitigate the most pernicious and costly Tory austerity measures, such as the two-child limit. Will the Cabinet secretary outline the total cost to the Scottish Government of all the UK Government policies that are being mitigated, including the two-child benefit cap?
Shirley-Anne Somerville
Scottish National Party
Next year, in our draft budget, mitigating the impacts of UK Government policies will rise to more than £210 million per year, which is an increase of more than £56 million. That includes spending more than £99 million on discretionary housing payments to mitigate the bedroom tax and the benefit cap; maintaining our £41 million commitment to the Scottish welfare fund, which provides crisis support and helps eligible people to establish independent living; and spending around £70 million above the block grant adjustment to mitigate the winter fuel payment cut, ensuring that all pensioners’ households will receive a minimum of £100 of support next winter.
I also noted with some disbelief that, only yesterday, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions seemed to suggest that, despite the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government not having the powers to do so, it is somehow up to the Scottish Government to alleviate the critical situation of the WASPI women—women against state pension inequality. It is a deep disappointment that the UK Government has abdicated its responsibility on that and on the other areas that we mitigate.
Elizabeth Smith
Conservative
The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government said in her budget statement that data would be required from the Department for Work and Pensions before the Scottish Government could put a cost on the mitigation measures. Will the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice spell out exactly what data would be required to implement the policy?
Shirley-Anne Somerville
Scottish National Party
We need some additional information sharing and data sharing with the DWP. Work on that has begun—letters have been exchanged, and officials from the social security directorate in the Scottish Government and from the DWP are working on that.
I would be happy to provide information on the data that we think is still required. What we need might still change, because we are working through that; in essence, we are in the first sprint of the discovery phase for what needs to happen. With the caveat that it might change with that discovery work, I would be happy to provide Liz Smith with that information.
Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask Government Ministers questions. These questions are asked in the Chamber itself and are known as Oral Questions. Members may also put down Written Questions. In the House of Commons, Question Time takes place for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after Prayers. The different Government Departments answer questions according to a rota and the questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the Government Department concerned. In the House of Lords up to four questions may be asked of the Government at the beginning of each day's business. They are known as 'starred questions' because they are marked with a star on the Order Paper. Questions may also be asked at the end of each day's business and these may include a short debate. They are known as 'unstarred questions' and are less frequent. Questions in both Houses must be written down in advance and put on the agenda and both Houses have methods for selecting the questions that will be asked. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P1 at the UK Parliament site.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
