Scotland Bill — Clause 19 — Threshold for Disability Benefits — 30 Jun 2015 at 14:00

The majority of MPs voted against allowing the devolved administration in Scotland to pay disability benefits in respect of short term conditions and conditions which do not meet a threshold of being significant.

MPs were considering the Scotland Bill[1]

The amendment rejected in this vote was:

  • Amendment 128, page 21, line 39, leave out from “of” to the end of line 7 on page 22 and insert
  • “a disabled person or person with a physical or mental impairment or health condition in respect of effects or needs arising from that disability, impairment or health condition.”

Had it not been rejected this would have impacted clause 19 of the Bill[2]. Clause 19 included a provision to devolve responsibility for disability benefit to Scotland. This rejected amendment sought to change that definition. The definition of disability benefit present in the Bill at the time of the vote stated:

  • "Disability benefit” means a benefit which is normally payable in respect of—
  • (a) a significant adverse effect that impairment to a person’s physical or mental condition has on his or her ability to carry out day-to-day activities (for example, looking after yourself, moving around or communicating), or
  • (b) a significant need (for example, for attention or for supervision to avoid substantial danger to anyone) arising from impairment to a person’s physical or mental condition; and for this purpose the adverse effect or need must not be short-term.

The rejected amendment sought to remove the requirement that a health condition in respect of which a disability benefit could be payable must have significant effect, or gave rise to a significant need; and also to remove the requirement that a condition not be short-term.

An explanatory note accompanying the rejected amendment stated:

  • The current definition of ‘disability benefit’ used in the Bill is restrictive and could place unnecessary limits on the kind of replacement benefit the Scottish Government has the power to introduce. It may not, for example, allow the Scottish Government to introduce a benefit to assist people with very low level disabilities or those for whom the effect of their disability is largely financial

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Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Con305 (+2 tell) 0093.0%
DUP4 0050.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Lab0 192 (+2 tell)083.6%
LDem0 4050.0%
PC0 1033.3%
SDLP0 2066.7%
SNP0 52092.9%
UKIP1 00100.0%
UUP2 00100.0%
Total:312 252088.2%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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