 Fel cael ei cychwyn i gyd o unrhyw yw'r cwestiynau i gael i'w Llywodraeth i ddano i ddano i Llywodraeth Gwlad. A bod yn rhoi'r cyfrifbryd yr oedd cyfnodol ymuno i d врtych yn cael ei wneud o swyfforddiol mewn byd ydym am gael i gael i gael i'r cyfrifbryd yn cyffredinol? Llywodraeth Cymru haf ei eisiau gweithgaethau gweithreul iddo i hunain Cawsla, arniwch o'r gweithreul yma i gael i gael i gael i gael i'w fiefethau gweithreul a'r Siaradhe Oslo diddordebriaethau hon, ac drwy ddatblygu maeth Sol Crown, heddor glesaf. Daniel Johnson? The presumption against short sentences is an important policy move, but one that requires support from criminal justice social work. I was therefore wondering if the Government could tell the chamber how many criminal justice social workers there are currently and whether there is any anticipated increase in demand for criminal justice social workers because of the move towards a presumption against 12-month sentences. Indeed, whether any increase in demand for criminal justice social workers was experienced with the move to presumption against three-month sentences. Daniel Johnson, I thank you for the question and also to highlight a very important issue around how we approach our criminal justice system and how we make sure that we rehabilitate people and how we support them. Of course, he points out that there will be a shift in how we approach that more generally across all services that will require a multi-agency approach. I do not have the specific figures that he would like to request. I will make sure that we can endeavour to get those figures in the detail that he requires. The social services workforce is 2,290. That is 7.7 per cent of all Scottish employment. The workforce headcount has increased by 2.6 per cent overall since 2008. There has been an upward increase in the specifics beyond that, though I do not have the detail that I will endeavour to make sure that Daniel Johnson is furnished with those figures. I will also undertake that this is a cross-portfolio approach that will require me to work with my colleagues across the Government, including Humza Yousaf and Jeane Freeman, on the issues that impact on people's lives. To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it will give to revising the open market shared equity scheme thresholds in order to address varying house prices within local authority areas. Minister Kevin Stewart. Thank you, Presiding Officer. New threshold areas and prices for the open market shared equity scheme, OMSA, were implemented in December 2018 following consultation with local authorities and COSLA. The new threshold prices are based on the most recent house price data available. They ensure that the scheme continues to be targeted at those who need help to access the affordable housing market and to ensure that all areas are able to benefit from a viable scheme with a reasonable number of purchases. We will monitor the impact of those changes and threshold prices will be reviewed on an annual basis. Linda Fabiani. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I say to the minister that it is quite clear in the case of East Kilbride that it is not targeted and that, therefore, all areas are not taken into consideration? I have been writing to respective Scottish Governments about this for many, many years now in relation to the rent-to-mortgage scheme and now in relation to people who wish to get on the home ownership ladder with help from what seems on the surface of an excellent scheme. People in East Kilbride for the house prices are higher than the rest of South Lanarkshire and have been even further disadvantaged by the fact that the threshold has now dropped. Can I ask that the minister looks at this sooner rather than later and certainly earlier than a year's time? Presiding Officer, I thank Ms Fabiani for her question. I know that she has been pretty tenacious on the subject on behalf of our constituents. What we did in terms of the recent review was to increase the number of threshold areas from 28 to 38, which reflects the subdivision of larger threshold areas into individual local authorities, which better support local markets. The Lanarkshire threshold area was divided into north and south Lanarkshire, and while that has been beneficial for many, it may be the case that it has not been quite so beneficial for East Kilbride. Increasing the amount of threshold areas and prices to a great degree would be very complex to administer and quite difficult in some cases for buyers to understand. It would undermine the original principle of the scheme itself. I will say to Ms Fabiani that I am more than willing to meet her to speak about the situation that she has come across in her constituency in East Kilbride, and I will continue to keep all those matters under review because I want as many people as possible first-time buyers to benefit from the scheme. Michelle Ballantyne, to be followed by Pauline McNeill. I wonder if the minister could tell me by what metric it has decided that properties in a given area should be subject to a golden share, and how agreements to determine golden share properties are reached between the Scottish Government and local authorities? I thank Ms Ballantyne for her question. I am unable to give her a direct answer and would have to look at each individual local authority and its agreement with the Scottish Government. If she wants particular details, if she could drop me a note, I am more than happy to respond to that. If she just wants a general overview of that, I am happy to write to her, but I will talk to Ms Ballantyne at the end of this to see how she wants to approach that. Pauline McNeill, has the minister considered putting more resources into the open market-shared equity scheme to improve the profile of it, particularly because the scheme promotes the existing homes and not just new homes, whereas the help-to-buy scheme seems to focus on first-time buyers and new homes? Does the minister agree that we need to ensure that we are promoting existing homes as well as new homes for first-time buyers? I agree with Ms McNeill that we need to promote all the schemes in terms of help-to-buy and including OMSA. In 2018-19, we have budgeted £70 million for OMSA. What we are seeing with that scheme is that 75 per cent of the folk who are applying are aged 18 to 35. 99 per cent of those folks are first-time buyers, the others being from priority access group, and the average household income of those folks is £24,000. That scheme has benefited many people right across the country, and I am quite happy to ensure that we continue to promote that and the other help-to-buy schemes that we have in place. To ask the Scottish Government whether it provides support for residents of sheltered housing complexes who find themselves the victims of sustained abuse by other residents. Abuse in our communities is unacceptable and we recognise that tackling this issue requires a multi-agency approach. Individual landlords, councils and the police all have responsibilities for tackling anti-social behaviour in social housing. Councils can use anti-social behaviour orders to ban abusers from places or contact with people. The police and courts can deal with threatening or abusive behaviour. Councils and other public bodies must, under current legislation, act to support and protect adults at risk of harm. I thank the cabinet secretary for her answer and, as she will be aware, abuse can come in many forms. I have been contacted by elderly residents from one particular sheltered housing complex in the Falkirk area who have grave concerns with the level of support that their housing association is providing. They have been repeatedly subject to mental and physical abuse by others in the complex and some have become too frightened to leave their own homes. Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that that should not be allowed to happen? Could she advise me on what I can say to those residents so that they feel free and feel safe from isolation? I appreciate Alison Harris for raising the issue. Of course, I am sure that it will be of interest to my colleague Christina McKelvie, with responsibility for older people as well. I am happy to meet Alison Harris if that would assist her. It might be that there are different ways in which that can be approached, depending on whether it is a council property, whether it is owner-occupier or the whole host of different ways in which that can be approached. Nonetheless, regardless of that, the anti-social behaviour order and the legislation that underpins that is one way and one route by which people can raise concerns, there are a number of complexities around the way in which behaviours such as that manifest themselves with their older population will require a lot of delicate handling and sensitivity. I extend that offer to Alison Harris to meet her to understand the context a bit more fully and to make sure that we can work with her to support her constituents. To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to improve fire safety standards, including requiring domestic properties to be equipped with smoke, heat and carbon monoxide alarms. The Scottish Government is committed to achieving improved fire safety. In June 2017, following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the Scottish Government took immediate steps to establish a ministerial working group on building and fire safety. The group has agreed a number of recommendations to improve building and fire safety, including lowering the height of buildings on which cladding must be noncombustible or pass a full-scale fire test, extending the mandatory installation of sprinklers and flats and in larger multi-occupancy dwellings on those that provide care and specific fire safety guidance to residents of high-rise domestic buildings and the introduction of guidance for fire risk assessments. Those measures are, in addition to the new minimum standard for fire and carbon monoxide detection for all homes that comes into force in February 2021. Does the minister agree that a single death from residential fires is one too many and that those improvement standards will help to ensure that residents in my constituency of Clyde, Baig and Mogai and across the whole of Scotland benefit from high level of protection irrespective of where they live and if it is private or social or new-built homes? That should be promoted extensively by this Parliament and everyone else. I agree completely with Mr Paterson that a single death from fire in Scotland is one too many. Significant progress has been made in fire safety. As we look to realise our vision for safer and stronger communities across Scotland with a long-term decrease in the number and rate of fatal fire casualties. However, none of us can be complacent about that. Fire alarms are proven to save lives and are one of the most important investments you can make to protect life and property. Through the improved standard for fire and carbon monoxide detection, we can ensure that everyone will benefit from the same high level of protection, whether you own your home or rent from a private or social landlord. I thank Mr Paterson for talking about promotion, because it is up to each and every one of us to promote those changes and to ensure that people adhere to the new standards that we are setting. I am happy to talk to any member about how we can help them to promote the scheme. 5. Elaine Smith To ask the Scottish Government what funding it gives to local authorities for the provision of community services. Scottish Government's 2019-20 budget will provide local government with overall funding totaling more than £11.6 billion. The vast majority of the funding is not allocated for individual services, as is the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources that are available to them, including for the range of community services that they deliver on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities. 6. Elaine Smith I thank the cabinet secretary for her response. Is she aware that, according to public sector trade unions, over 31,000 local government jobs have been lost in Scotland since 2008, which means that 31,000 fewer people provide services direct to the local communities, putting growing pressure on those who remain in work and resulting in community library and leisure centre closures, along with reduced staffing and reduced hours in those who remain open? Since that has undoubtedly an impact on Government policy, on issues such as health and wellbeing, loneliness, isolation and obesity, could the cabinet secretary indicate how the Scottish Government intends to audit the impact of community library and leisure centre closures, please? The work between local government and national government and our aspirations are jointly held. Those are articulated through our national performance framework, by which we will ensure that we can deliver on the key criteria set out with that. That also includes things such as wellbeing. Undoubtedly, some of the issues that Elaine Smith points to around libraries, leisure facilities are undoubtedly part of that sense of wellbeing that we feel within our communities. We have done what we can to protect local government as best we can, and that is why we have provided that councils have more resources on revenue terms than capital terms and overall. Again, the budget, which was passed just a week ago, enhanced our offer to local governments to help them to support and provide the services that their communities need and to respond to the needs of their communities. I do not think, however, that the Labour Party came up with any proposals on which they would choose to help to fund the issues that Elaine Smith articulates in order to ensure that people can continue to enjoy the facilities across our councils. Kenneth Gibson Thank you, Presiding Officer. Does the cabinet secretary share the view of COSLA, which told the local government and community committee on 9 January that it is evident that councils are collapsing in England and Wales, who would absolutely not want that level of cuts to Scottish budgets? Can she outline what the Scottish ministers have done to protect local government budgets in Scotland from what has happened in England under the Tories and Wales under Labour? The member makes a very good point. We share the view that was taken by COSLA around the analysis of what has happened to local authorities across England, because they have faced real-terms budget reductions of 28 per cent over the period of 2011 to 2018. In comparison, we have endeavoured to protect and treat fairly local government in Scotland. I have talked to around £11.6 billion total funding that goes to local government in Scotland and the fact that we work in partnership to deliver the aspirations set out in the national performance framework and the fact that we have engaged with the Green Party colleagues to make sure that we can work to create a budget that works with the whole of Scotland. For other parties to criticise that, in the face of what their own parties are doing at other parts of the UK, we will continue to work hard with local government to protect and treat fairly local government and to support the good work that they do delivering for our communities across the country. Kenneth Gibson is absolutely right to make sure that we always and never forget the difference of approach between this Government and other parts of the UK. To ask the Scottish Government whether its target to build 50,000 new affordable homes will be met. We are making excellent progress towards our target of delivering 50,000 affordable homes, 35,000 of which will be for social rent. The most recent published quarterly housing statistics show that, since April 2016, to the end of September 2018, we have delivered 19,400 affordable homes, 11,825 of which are for social rent, keeping us well on track to deliver our ambitious target over the course of this Parliament. The Government can be very proud of its record in affordable housing, having now delivered more than 80,000 affordable homes since 2007. The cabinet secretary will be aware that the SNP's 2016 manifesto stated that, over the next Parliament, we will invest £3 billion to build at least 50,000 more affordable homes. He said that he has delivered 19,000, but he has not delivered 50,000 more affordable homes in the built environment. Could the minister give us the real figures on how many new affordable homes will be built over this Parliament and is it anywhere close to the 50,000 target? The majority of homes provided through the affordable housing supply programme will be new built. The programme also includes rehabilitation projects of the shelf purchases and homes for low-cost home ownership from existing housing stock. Reflecting the mix, we have always referred to the delivery of more affordable homes. We have allowed that because many local authorities have asked us for the flexibility to allow them to buy back stock in certain places, so that they have the right housing, the right affordable and social housing in their areas. I would have thought that Mr Scott would have liked that idea of localism because that has been punted by the Conservatives for so long. In Mr Scott's constituency, we have completed projects through Ayrshire Housing, Hanover Housing Association and South Ayrshire Council, such as Limans Wines, Dunham Road, Lochside and many others in Ayr. We are currently on site in Peeble Street and Whitlet's primary school, James Brown Avenue. In Trun, Eros Green phase 1 has been completed by the West of Scotland Housing Association and phase 2 is now going on. That is good news for Ayr. That is good news for the whole of Scotland, which is benefiting from this ambitious housing programme. I apologise to Mr Mason and the subsequent questioners. We didn't get a lot of progress. I just encourage more succinct supplementary questions and more succinct answers. We turn to social security and older people. Question 1, Ruth Maguire. To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that Social Security Scotland has a diverse workforce that represents our society. Social Security Scotland is working with a wide range of stakeholders to recruit a diverse workforce. That includes practical measures such as developing accessible job descriptions and adverts, and removing barriers such as qualification requirements for entry-level roles to broaden the applicant pool, as well as offering feedback to unsuccessful candidates to support and encourage them to reapply for future roles. Social Security Scotland has also undertaken outreach activities to promote jobs to the wider community and provide practical support to potential applicants that are happening in areas where roles are based. Ruth Maguire. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. A notable commitment in the social security charter includes involving those with lived experience and measuring performance. Can the cabinet secretary expand on how they will measure success in respect of recruiting a diverse workforce? Ms Maguire is quite right to point to the social security charter that embeds absolutely everything that this Government and the agency does on social security. The agency is working to publish data on its workforce to ensure transparency and to drive continuous improvement in its selection process. We have seen progress in those areas, but we are never complacent. We are always open to do more, to work with stakeholders, organisations, for example, and others, to review the progress that we have made to date and to see what more can be done to improve further. That is a process that both myself and the agency are committed to achieving. Jeremy Balford will be followed by Anas Sarwar. Can I ask the cabinet secretary of the new people working for the agency how many from previously worked from DWP and what percentage of the new workforce does that make up? The agency does not collect statistics on the last employment place that people are coming from. What we do ensure is that every single person that comes through the door is committed to the established fairness, dignity and respect agenda that we have. Every single person is assessed on their ability to ensure that they carry that out. That is done through the application process, through the recruitment and then through induction and continuous professional development. I am proud that everyone who has chosen to come and work for our agency is doing just that. Anas Sarwar, can the cabinet secretary confirm how many members of the executive advisory board are members of a diverse minority background? Can she also outline what steps she has taken to increase the diversity of the panels and the leadership of the Social Security Scotland and the Associated Commission? I think that that is something that, although the agency is moving in the right direction on, we have to work on. I pay tribute to the work that Anas Sarwar has been doing on that, particularly his earlier coverage on that a couple of weeks ago. I would be happy to correspond directly with the member on that and to ensure that he is put in touch with the agency to carry on those conversations. There is something that I think that we have taken steps to address some of those areas. Quite clearly there is more that we can do on that and we are very open to those discussions. To ask the Scottish Government what measures it is taking to meet the commitment in the Social Security Charter for the system to be efficient and deliver value for money. We are committed to funding social security to ensure that we deliver a service based on dignity and respect, that it is an investment in the people of Scotland and provides clear value for money for the public purse. Affordability and value for money are key considerations through our decision making process. All resource commitments and investment decisions are subject to the development of robust business cases that fully consider evidence-based options appraisals and value for money in line with the Scottish Public Finance Manual. We produce forecasts of benefits to support policy development, evaluation, delivery costs and financial management, and we consider the implications for each system change and the impact on the whole of the Scottish budget. Bill Bowman, thank you for that answer. The Scottish Government is consulting on the job grant, which is stated to be for youngsters specifically for people between 16 to 24 years old. Dundee in my region has the lowest employment rate in Scotland and there are significant numbers of older people who are out of work. A situation that is worsening with recent company closures at Mitchell and McGill's and further possible redundancies following the SNP council budget cuts or is evidenced in the worrying statistic that one in 10 people in Dundee have never ever held a job. Taking that into account, can the minister explain the fairness of this discrimination against the older job market in this grant being solely offered to younger people? Of course, the proposed job grant is about one aspect of the work that this Government undertakes, particularly under my colleague Jamie Hepburn to work to ensure that we are supporting all those who are seeking to either return to the job market or are needing additional support to move on. I am disappointed that the job grant is being viewed in such a manner, but if the Conservatives were genuinely interested in broadening it out or genuinely interested in another proposal, I would have expected to see the details of that during the Scottish budget process and I did not see them. If the member genuinely has an area that he wishes the Scottish Government to look on, I would look forward to seeing the details of it and particularly how he would choose to fund it. Shona Robison, to be following Mark Griffin. I think that the cabinet secretary will be waiting quite a while for that, but the charter was co-produced by people with lived experience of the system and promises to treat everyone with dignity and respect. Can the cabinet secretary outline in more detail how the approach differs from the UK social security system, which has, of course, been severely criticised by the UN? Shona Robison is quite right to point out to the concerns that the UN and, most recently, the special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights has had around the DWP system and its impact on individuals. I would again refer Ms Robison to the charter, which I know that she is fully aware of as a member of the social security committee. That is a direct response to ensure that we never ever get into a position in Scotland where social security is seen in anything but a human right and that we treat everyone going forward from this approach with dignity and respect to ensure that they get the money and the payments that they are entitled to. Sending £6 million to the DWP to administer carers allowance and giving up any ability to change any of the rules around the allowance does not seem to me to be value for money. Can the cabinet secretary rule out any agency arrangements for disability benefits and say that, if she will end the agency arrangements for carers allowance at the soonest possible opportunity? Cabinet secretary, we will look very carefully at any agency agreement that we undertake. I would again gently remind the member that it is because we undertook an agency agreement with the DWP that allowed us only a matter of weeks after the Social Security Act received its royal assent to begin paying the carers allowance supplement. We would not have been able to do that had we had to wait for a process of having a carers allowance programme and a delivery mechanism for that in place. The choice is simple. We can do it with an agency agreement with the DWP that continues to pay carers allowance and we have an investment of £33 million into carers allowance supplement or you do not. Our choice was very simple that we made sure that the money went into carers pockets as quickly as possible and that was the right decision for us to make. To ask the Scottish Government how it supports men's sheds. The Scottish Government supports the national men's sheds movement in a variety of ways. We provide core funding to the Scottish Men's Sheds Association, which supports individual men's sheds on the wide range of practical issues such as start-up health and safety and asset management. We also support local shed development, which is currently running a series of regional events to support both local partners and shedders alike, encouraging a place-based partnership approach to tackling social isolation and loneliness, improving the mental and physical health. The Scottish Men's Shed Association has been a key stakeholder in the development of the social isolation and loneliness strategy. I hope that that will encourage others to be involved in their own local men's sheds and add to the 164 that we currently have here in Scotland. The Men's Shed movement has been established for many years now, and in my constituency of Galloway and West Dumfries, Dobity's Men's Shed is over 50 members. It is an example of a unique place where men can come together and socialise with a purpose, providing a positive impact on men's mental health and wellbeing. Shedders are an autonomous bunch with each shed being run by the men themselves with their own rules and policies. Can the Scottish Government confirm to the Shedders at Dobity and, indeed, across Scotland that there will be no change to the self-rule if funding is allocated directly from the Scottish Government in the future? I am well aware of the two men's sheds that are in Dobity and Stranraer. I know that Stranraer will have an event coming up soon. My colleague Emma Harper will go into that. We absolutely agree that the Men's Shed Association should maintain their autonomy and independence. I am happy to work with them on those issues. If you have a specific issue that you think is happening in Dobity, I will be happy to listen to it and work with the Men's Shed Association and Finlay Carson to deal with that. The minister will be aware of the contribution that Finlay Carson said of men's sheds, such as Orkney men's shed, to improving not just social isolation but tackling mental health. What discussions has she had with her health colleagues about the possibility of funding being attracted at a local level from health boards into supporting local men's sheds? It is an interesting perspective to look at it from, because we already work closely with lots of community partnership organisations such as Age Scotland, the Glasgow Caledonian University community ownership support services, local authorities and the third sector. If there is merit in speaking to my health colleagues on that, I am happy to hear that. However, I can see the benefit in it, because in social isolation and loneliness, some of the symptoms of that can exacerbate a mental health issue or can be the cause of it. If there are ways to work together in order to minimise some of that, I am happy to hear it. To ask the Scottish Government by what date it will publish its draft regulations for disability assistance. People who rely on disability benefits have consistently told us that what matters most to them is that they are paid the right amount of money on time, so the most important consideration will be to ensure a safe and secure transition of all the benefits from the DWP. The timetable and delivery schedule will be announced in due course, and the publication of draft regulations will be subject to that timetable and delivery schedule. I thank the cabinet secretary for her non-answer. Having hosted a meeting with many leading third sector disability organisations recently, we all welcome the Scottish Government's consultation on disability regulations. However, will the cabinet secretary acknowledge that, without a clear date or timescale for publishing those draft regulations, the Scottish Government is causing unnecessary suffering and concern for many vulnerable people who are in receipt of those benefits? Is this the way that the Scottish Government wants to lead on the principle of treating Scottish people with dignity, fairness and respect? Do you know what a lot of disabled people speak to me about? The absolutely inhumane and degrading treatment that they suffer at the hands of the DWP is day in and day out. That is why we are determined to ensure that, when we deliver our disability benefits to Social Security Scotland, it will be a radically different approach to ensure that they are treated with dignity, fairness and respect. When we do so and launch the consultation on disability benefits, I am sure that those who have experience of the current DWP system will see a marked and welcomed difference to what we are proposing than what they are suffering at the moment. Presiding Officer, like many others, I welcomed the announcement last year that there will be no private sector involvement in the disability assessment process. Can the cabinet secretary tell us why it is vital to take a different approach to the UK Government's often cruel and humiliating assessment regime? Ruth Maguire is quite right to point out the cruel aspects of the assessment process, which is why it is one of the areas that the Government has already announced that it will make key changes to ensuring that there is no private sector involvement and to ensure that the assessment process is fairer, based on standards rather than case volumes. The agency will undertake the assessments and will provide a flexible service, including home visits when required. It will ensure that the assessment process works effectively for people who, whatever their condition or disability, and when we do that and when we build our system on a culture of dignity and respect, that will flow through the attitude of the assessment staff. That will ensure that those who have to apply to Social Security Scotland will know that they will be supported through that process, rather than being treated in an inhumane and undignified manner as they do day-in, day-out through the DWP. To ask the Scottish Government what the impact will be on older people in Scotland of the UK Government's use of universal credit to limit entitlement to pension credit. Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills will fundamentally disagree with the UK Government's decision to make this policy change, which is expected to leave pensioners as much as £7,000 a year worse off simply because they have a younger partner. Thousands of couples in Scotland are expected to be hit by this policy over the coming years, with the UK Government expecting 15,000 couples across the UK to be affected this year alone. I have written to the UK Government about the matter, outlining my concerns and asking for clarity on the impact that it will have. I thank the cabinet secretary for that information. Independent analysis from Spice found that 10 per cent of households in Scotland claiming pension credit are likely to be affected. Does the minister agree that the severe and unfair cut is widespread in its reach, affecting many families who will have little to no means to adjust to the sudden drop in their income? I completely agree with Bill Kidd on that issue. Once the policy comes into place, the families that are affected by it will find themselves much worse off than they could have anticipated. They will no longer be entitled to claim pension credit and will be forced to claim universal credit, which is, of course, much less generous for couples than the pension credit. We already know that universal credit is causing problems and members across the chamber will see that in their surgeries and in their mailbags. It is causing problems for people who are claiming it, and its introduction has led to an increase in renteriors and forced people into hardship. That is something that even the Secretary of State has admitted has led to an increase in hardship and use of food banks only in the last couple of weeks. To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that social security claimants have access to representation at tribunals. We recognise that allowing people to have access to a representative at a tribunal hearing is an important aspect of their rights-based approach. The procedural rules for the social security chamber ensure that individuals can be represented and also allow them to be accompanied by a supporter at their hearing. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer, but the problem is access to someone to provide that support. The Scottish legal aid boards' cutting of their making advice work programme has means that, across the Lothians and Borders, 12 experienced and highly skilled front-line workers are about to lose their positions. It will leave my constituents with almost no access to anyone with the experience to represent them at tribunals. Will the cabinet secretary get SLAB to reverse that decision? I recognise that a difficult decision has had to be taken not to continue funding for some Scottish legal aid board advice projects, but the Scottish Government continues to provide £2.7 million to fund 27 advice projects across the country. SLAB has always been very clear in its communications that rolling funding has never been intended and that those projects should not be seen as using that as core funding for the organisations. Certainly, from the Social Security Scotland's point of view, we will do all that we can within the agency to ensure that an individual has help with their appeal, including providing information and signposting to organisations who will be able to assist them further. That is built into the process that the agency delivers as it goes through its determinations. 8. Halston Johnston Thank you to ask the Scottish Government how it will minimise erroneous underpayment of devolved social security assistance. Our focus is on paying the right people the right money at the right time. Social Security Scotland has put in place a range of robust measures to prevent errors from occurring. That includes clear pre-claim guidance for clients to ensure that we all have the right information from the outset and clear technical guidance for our staff alongside on-going training and support to help them to make the right decision first time. We also ensure that we have a robust checking process for applications. If an error is made, we will put it right and we will learn from those mistakes, ensuring that we continually strive to improve our service. 8. Halston Johnston I thank the cabinet secretary for her response. We are advised that claimant error is mostly due to failing to keep the DWP aware of a deterioration in a functional need. I appreciate the cabinet secretary's comments about pre-claim guidance, but what specific support will be given to people to complete their applications fully and accurately and, very importantly, to keep social security Scotland up-to-date with their needs and what quality assurance will be put in place to monitor official errors? 8. Halston Johnston It is quite right to point out that the vast majority of underpayments for PIP and DLA in the reserve benefits system are caused by people already on a benefit failing to report an increase in their care or mobility needs and therefore losing out. That will come down a great deal to the culture that we have within the agency that will build up a level of trust between the agency and between recipients of payments, to ensure that they are encouraged to come forward and that they see that in a supportive manner and that the agency is there to ensure that they get the money that they are entitled to. That aspect is a very important aspect of the underpayments that they were committed to undertake. The Deputy Presiding Officer Thank you very much and that concludes portfolio questions. We are going to move on now to the next item of business, which is a debate on motion 1.6.012, in the name of Mark Griffin, on the carers allowance supplement. I invite all members who wish to speak in this debate to press their request street buttons as soon as possible. I will just take a few moments for members and ministers to change seats.