Image source, bbc

SNP MSP Clare Haughey says the cost of these closures will be a major issue and people wills suffer due to increased travel costs.

Ms Haughey says in areas of poverty £4.50 for an all day bus ticket is just too much for some and may leave them having to choose between sanctions or eating.

She says the impact of the closures show just how out of touch those at the DWP are and they are wilfully ignoring the damage that will be caused. 

Tory MSP Adam Tomkins asks Ms Haughey to name any one job centre service that is being cut.

Ms Haughey says: "This is just the thin end of the wedge."

Tory MSP Annie Wells says she can understand the concerns raised and says she has been open about this. 

Ms Wells says, whilst it is right to review job centres, "it is not right to stream roll ahead with closures." 

The Tory MSP says there are concerns that service users have access to an environment in which they feel safe. 

Ms Wells says members of Jobcentre Plus visit the homes of vulnerable service users and asks if this could be expanded on.

Employability Minister Jamie Hepburn intervenes to ask what the UK government has said on these suggestions.

Ms Wells says they have said they would be open to discussing suggestions. 

Image source, GETTY IMAGES

Here's paragraph 58 of the Smith Commission Agreement: It sets out that “the UK and Scottish government will identify ways to further link services through methods such as co-location wherever possible and establish more formal mechanisms to govern the Jobcentre Plus network in Scotland”.

Labour and the SNP say this should have triggered more meaningful dialogue between the DWP and the Scottish government on the future of Jobcentre Plus sites in Scotland,

Both parties call on the DWP to halt the closures to allow the Scottish government to bring forward substantive co-location proposals to save these jobcentres.  

The cross-party Smith Commission on further devolution  recommended the Scottish Parliament be given new powers over some taxes and welfare payments in 2014.

The commission's chair, Lord Smith, said the changes would "deliver a stronger parliament, a more accountable parliament and a more autonomous parliament".

The report can be read in full here, external.

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SNP MSP Bob Doris says he has already seen the impact of the proposed job centre closures on people and says it is causing great concern.

Mr Doris calls on MSPs to think of the mental and physical health impacts on the vulnerable of these closures.

Read our report of SNP MSP Bob Doris's member's debate on job centre closures here.

Mr Griffin says Labour expect to see services free of the punitive sanctions regime and services providing local employment support to get people into the work they want.

He concludes saying that delivering the dignity and respect for these schemes and finding ways to protect the job centres will help achieve these ambitions.

Mr Griffin says the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has highlighted the value of local employment market knowledge which is set to be lost as a result of the closures.

Mr Tomkins intervenes to ask if the Labour position is that none of the job centres across the UK can close or merge.

Mr Griffin says that Scottish Labour do not support the closures and the UK government should invest more in public services. 

The Labour MSP says communities across Scotland will be affected by this and the Scottish Tories must "stop trying to build the economy off the back of the poor, sick and disabled."

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Scottish Labour MSP Mark Griffin says Labour is against all the closures.

Mr Griffin says Labour and the SNP have joined together to fight the proposed closures of job centres in Glasgow.

The Labour MSP says the DWP proposals are "reckless at best and utterly perverse at worst".

Employability Minister Jamie Hepburn intervenes to say a letter from UK Employment Minister Damien Hinds, on the job centre closures, has said it is not clear how many redundancies will result from the closures.

Mr Tomkins says that the letter has not been shared with the Scottish Conservatives. 

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Mr Tomkins says no fewer than four police stations in Glasgow have been reviewed.

The Tory MSP says again this is being driven by the estate.

SNP MSP Sandra White raises a point of order saying that Mr Tomkins should not be talking about police stations as the debate is about job centres.

Deputy Presiding Officer Christine Grahame says Mr Tomkins had come "just within a whisker of being within the amendment".

Where are the howls of anger from the SNP MSPs about police station asks Mr Tomkins.

Mr Tomkins says the jobs market has changed considerably and there is more jobs available now than there has been before.

He says it is appropriate that the DWP processes remain under constant review.

SNP MSP Bob Doris intevenes to say that some of those affected are the most vulnerable in society. 

Mr Tomkins says he accepts that point and that is why he is calling for all eight closures to be put to public consultation.

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Conservative MSP Adam Tomkins says from the day he discovered the proposals from the DWP to close job centres in Glasgow and across Scotland he has expressed concern.

He says his party has sought to understand the DWP decisions. 

Mr Tomkins says there is agreement in Westminster that the future of Jobcentre Plus has to be different from its past.

Labour MSP Pauline McNeill asks if Glasgow is ready for half its job centres to close given the digital exclusion there. 

Mr Tomkins says all eight of the job centre closure proposals should have been put to public consultation. 

Mr Hepburn says it is difficult to make any proposals, about any particular job centre, when the Scottish government does not know which of the premises will close.

The employability minister says the rationale for the decisions need to be better explained so that the Scottish government can be more involved.

He urges the UK government to share its plans and says it should halt the process until it does so. 

Mr Hepburn says the UK government should explore all options available to them to help those affected. 

Tory MSP Adam Tomkins says there is much in the minister's remarks he agrees with and asks if he has made any suggestions to the joint working group on the Jobcentre Plus closures. 

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Mr Hepburn says he will not be accepting the Tory amendment because it has sought to change the language from "will affect service users" to "may affect service users".

He says there is much in the amendment he agrees with apart from this.

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Employability Minister Jamie Hepburn says in many cases the closure of a local job centre will make accessing services online even more difficult.

He says the DWP says it will close six administrative centres across Scotland which employ hard working people who keep the job centre network running.

Mr Hepburn says lines on maps do not reflect the travel costs faced by people who now have to travel to other job centres which are not in their local areas.

The employability minister says this will leave people open to benefit sanctions.

He says DWP staff are committed and hard working despite the framework they have to work to.

Mr Hepburn says on 26 January says the DWP announced another raft of closures.

The employability minister says he has recevied a letter from UK Employment Minister Damian Hinds and he urges the minister to come and visit those affected by the proposals.

He says any proposed closure should be open to consultation.

Image source, PA

Unemployment in Scotland has fallen, with the number of people in employment rising by a record level, according to figures published in August.

The labour market data showed that unemployment fell by 26,000 between April and June to stand at 143,000.

The Scottish unemployment rate is now 5.2%, which is above the rate of 4.9% for the UK as a whole.

Employment in Scotland increased by 51,000 over the same period, and now stands at 2,629,000.

This was the highest quarterly rise since records began - although the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which publishes the figures, said this was largely due to "an estimate in the previous period much lower than other recent estimates, with the underlying pattern mostly flat".