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

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

Esther McVey

All visits to Scotland by this Department’s Ministers are welfare related engagements. The following gives details of those visits

Secretary of State

The Rt.Hon. Iain Duncan Smith

· September 2010 – delivered a speech and attended meetings in Edinburgh

· February 2011 – attended a meeting in Glasgow and conducted site visits in Motherwell

· April 2011 – conducted site visits in Edinburgh

· May 2011 – delivered a speech and conducted a site visit in Irvine

· September 2011 – delivered a speech in Edinburgh

· September 2011 – conducted a site visit in Leith and meetings in Edinburgh

· March 2012 – conducted a site visit and attended meetings in Edinburgh

· March 2012 – delivered a speech and conducted site visits in Dundee

· September 2012 – conducted site visits and delivered a speech in Glasgow

· March 2013 – delivered a speech and attended meetings in Edinburgh

Minister for Employment

The Rt.Hon Chris Grayling

· April 2011 – conducted a site visit and attended meetings in Edinburgh

· Jan 2012 – conducted site visits in Clydebank and Cumbernauld and attended meetings in Edinburgh

Mark Hoban MP

· March 2013 – conducted a site visit and attended meetings in Glasgow

Minister for Welfare Reform

Lord Freud

· November 2010 – delivered a speech and attended meetings in Edinburgh

· July 2012 – delivered a speech and attended meetings in Edinburgh

· November 2012 – attended meetings in Edinburgh

· March 2013 – delivered a speech in St Andrews

· June 2013 – delivered a speech and attended meetings in Glasgow and Edinburgh

· November 2013 – conducted a site visit to Inverness

Minister for Disabled People

The Rt.Hon Maria Miller

· September 2011 – attended meetings in Fife

· March 2012 – attended meetings in Edinburgh

The Rt.Hon Esther McVey

· October 2012 – conducted site visits in Edinburgh

· February 2013 – conducted site visits in Dundee

The Rt.Hon Mike Penning

· March 2014 – hosted an event in Glasgow

Minister for Pensions

Steve Webb MP

· Sept 2010 – attended a conference in Gleneagles

· March 2011 – delivered key note speech in Edinburgh; and provider visit

· September 2011 – attended a conference in Gleneagles

· April 2012 – conducted a site visit in Dundee and attended a meeting in Edinburgh, meeting Deputy First Minister

· September 2012 – attended a conference in Gleneagles

· September 2013 – attended a conference in Gleneagles

· March 2014 – delivered key note speech in Edinburgh; provider visit; roundtable event

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the statement by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Welfare Reform Committee on 26 June 2014, that ‘there isn’t any doubt that there are some people who’ve gone to foodbanks because they have been subject, for example, to sanctions or delays in receiving benefits’.

Esther McVey

The evidence David Mundell, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland provided to the Scottish Parliament’s Welfare Reform Committee on the 26 June highlighted the underlying complexity to the use of foodbanks.

The Government has already commissioned a report on food security by Warwick University, which was published in February 2014. The Government has no immediate plans to produce or commission further research, but will keep this under review.

Benefit clearance times are steadily improving with 92% of benefits being processed on time (within 16 days) nationally which is 6 percentage points higher than in 2009/10.

We have in place a robust system of safeguards that seek to ensure sanctions are only applied to those claimants who wilfully fail to meet their requirements. It remains the case that the vast majority of claimants do comply and are not sanctioned – each month only around 5% of JSA claimants are sanctioned and fewer than 1% of ESA claimants. Reduced payments are made where necessary to prevent hardship.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the statement of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Welfare Reform Committee on 26 June 2014, that ‘I want an analysis of the use of foodbanks that everybody can subscribe to’, whether his Department (a) is producing, (b) has commissioned or (c) plans to commission any new research into the use of foodbanks.

Esther McVey

The evidence David Mundell, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland provided to the Scottish Parliament’s Welfare Reform Committee on the 26 June highlighted the underlying complexity to the use of foodbanks.

The Government has already commissioned a report on food security by Warwick University, which was published in February 2014. The Government has no immediate plans to produce or commission further research, but will keep this under review.

Benefit clearance times are steadily improving with 92% of benefits being processed on time (within 16 days) nationally which is 6 percentage points higher than in 2009/10.

We have in place a robust system of safeguards that seek to ensure sanctions are only applied to those claimants who wilfully fail to meet their requirements. It remains the case that the vast majority of claimants do comply and are not sanctioned – each month only around 5% of JSA claimants are sanctioned and fewer than 1% of ESA claimants. Reduced payments are made where necessary to prevent hardship.