Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S7O-00328

Asked by: Duncan Dunlop, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what commitment it will give to extending the Borders Railway beyond Tweedbank to Hawick and Carlisle.

Question reference: S7O-00325

Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that CMAL will no longer publish the names or locations of shipyards bidding for the MV Lord of The Isles replacement contract or any future vessel tenders.

Question reference: S7O-00314

Asked by: Amanda Lindsay, MSP for Central Scot and Lothians West, Reform UK
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what immediate steps it will take to reduce waiting times for home adaptations to ensure that disabled people are allocated properties that meet their individual needs.

Question reference: S7O-00324

Asked by: Zen Ghani, MSP for Glasgow Cathcart and Pollok, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken to support large commercial retailers, such as Silverburn Shopping Centre in the Cathcart and Pollok constituency, which contribute £414 million in economic activity annually and support 8,713 jobs.

Question reference: S7O-00313

Asked by: James Adams, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to its annual homelessness statistics, which show that homelessness is at its highest recorded level in many parts of the country.

Question reference: S7O-00312

Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the latest homelessness statistics showing that 19,004 households are in temporary accommodation, the highest recorded figure, whether it considers that it has met its 2023 commitment to reduce the number of households in temporary accommodation by 2026.

Question reference: S7O-00310

Asked by: David Barratt, MSP for Cowdenbeath, Scottish National Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the effectiveness of its support for local authority acquisition and buy-back schemes in reducing homelessness and the use of temporary accommodation.

Question reference: S7O-00326

Asked by: Gary Bouse, MSP for Falkirk West, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2026
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 30 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to boost the decarbonisation of bus networks while supporting domestic bus manufacturing.

Question reference: S7W-03047

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 23 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what processes exist within the Scottish Government for monitoring of reports published by Audit Scotland and for taking action in response to their findings.

The Scottish Government has a range of processes and structures in place to capture, monitor, and take action to respond to Audit Scotland recommendations and findings and to communicate these. This includes central co-ordination and tracking of recommendations from Annual Audit reports throughout the year; clear Roles & Responsibilities of Accountable Officers and other Senior Civil Servants in relation to both Annual Audit reports and National Performance Audits; quarterly Director General Assurance meetings and other governance boards to assure implementation progress and plans for responding to Audit Scotland.

Question reference: S7W-03073

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Edinburgh and Lothians East, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 September 2026
Current Status: Answered by Angela Constance on 23 September 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many compensation settlements have been signed by NHS Scotland in each year since 1999.

The following table provides the number of NHS Scotland compensation claims managed through the Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS), and the amount reimbursed in relation to those claims, from 2015-16.

Earlier reporting recorded the number of reimbursements rather than claims. As a claim can result in more than one reimbursement, the two measures are not directly comparable.

	Number of Claims			Value £m
Financial Year	Clinical	Non-Clinical	Total	Clinical	Non-Clinical	Total
2015-16	200	56	256	49.57	3.23	52.81
2016-17	297	89	386	37.46	2.79	40.25
2017-18	219	42	261	31.87	1.88	33.74
2018-19	218	37	255	35.80	3.94	39.73
2019-20	202	52	254	34.32	3.65	37.96
2020-21	242	35	277	59.94	1.66	61.59
2021-22	320	81	401	105.97	3.27	109.24
2022-23	294	102	396	52.58	2.99	55.56
2023-24	250	75	325	43.67	3.66	47.33
2024-25	187	58	245	56.87	5.99	62.86
Total	2,429	627	3,056	508.04	33.05	541.08

CNORIS operates a £25,000 deductible, with individual NHS Boards responsible for claim costs up to this amount. The figures presented therefore reflect amounts reimbursed through the Scheme above the applicable deductible.

The information is presented at an aggregate level to protect claimant confidentiality and is broken down between clinical and non-clinical compensation in line with established reporting arrangements.

The number and value of claims in any one year do not necessarily relate to incidents that occurred in that year, as claims can take a number of years to conclude. A small number of high-value claims can also significantly affect the amount paid in any one year.

Further information on claims made through CNORIS is available in the CNORIS Annual Reports published by Public Services Delivery Scotland:

https://www.nss.nhs.scot/legal/clinical-negligence-and-other-risks-indemnity-scheme-cnoris/access-annual-reports-for-the-scheme/.