Eilidh Whiteford – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Scotland Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Eilidh Whiteford on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, which official welfare-related engagements in Scotland (a) he and (b) other Ministers in his Department have attended together with Ministers in the Department of Work and Pensions since May 2010.

David Mundell

The Secretary of State for Scotland and I have carried out a series of welfare related visits from which we have fed back to DWP Ministers. DWP have also carried out a series of welfare related meetings. Specific accompanied visits are:

In 2011 the then Secretary of State for Scotland undertook in April a visit to High Riggs Jobcentre Plus with Chris Grayling, and in May attended a youth employment event in Irvine with Iain Duncan Smith.

In November 2012, Lord Freud and I undertook a series of welfare related engagements including meeting with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, Edinburgh Council and Dunedin Canmore Housing Association; discussions with locally elected members from Dumfries and Galloway, West Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshire; and meeting with the Scottish Parliament Welfare Reform Committee.

In July 2013, Lord Freud and I met with both the Scottish Minister for Housing and Welfare, Margaret Burgess MSP and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), at Lord Freud’s office in London.

Lord Freud and I also attended the 2013 Annual COSLA Conference where Lord Freud gave a key note speech on welfare reform.

I recently completed a second round of meetings with all 32 local authorities in Scotland to seek their feedback on how the welfare reform changes are working in practice. I was also pleased to give evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Welfare Reform Committee on the 26 June 2014.