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: S6W-43208

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 5 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its draft Budget 2026-27, what any projected funding gap for commissioned social care services will be to meet the obligated uplift to at least the real Living Wage in 2026-27 if this budget is passed.

The draft Budget 2026-27 sets out a further £160 million investment to enable the payment of the Real Living Wage to adult social care workers in commissioned services in the next financial year. This will take the total Scottish Government investment in adult social care pay to over £1.1 billion annually.

It is the legal obligation of all employers to pay the National Living Wage. The additional £160 million will fund the gap between the National Living Wage and the Real Living Wage, enabling Local Authorities to offer pay rates for adult social care workers in commissioned services of more than 5% above the National Living Wage rate. Therefore, there will be no funding gap.

Question reference: S6W-43207

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Holding Answer by Tom Arthur on 4 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its draft Budget 2026-27 budget and level 4 tables that were published in conjunction with its draft Budget, whether the baseline used to calculate the total funds to implement the 2026-27 pay uplift in commissioned social care services was the current real Living Wage amount of £12.60ph.

Question reference: S6W-43205

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Holding Answer by Tom Arthur on 4 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its draft Budget 2026-27, what its response is to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities' (COSLA) assessment that there is a £15 million funding gap in meeting the estimated £175 million cost of delivering the real Living Wage to adult social care workers.

Question reference: S6W-43234

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 3 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what additional funding will be made available to (a) West Dunbartonshire and (b) Argyll and Bute Council to fund the pledge to deliver free Learn to Swim sessions, which was set out in the draft Scottish Budget 2026-27.

The draft Scottish Budget 2026-27 delivers a significant uplift in funding to sport. This allows us to deliver on our key ambition of ensuring every child has the opportunity to learn basic swimming skills, building confidence and safety in and around water.

We will work with Scottish Swimming and sportscotland to design a phased national roll-out of the National School Swimming Framework, ensuring the funding is targeted into addressing inequalities in access to swimming lessons across all local authority areas. That work is due to commence imminently.

Question reference: S6W-43505

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what the process is for Healthcare Infection Incident Assessment reports, and under what circumstances ministers are notified of these.

Question reference: S6W-43500

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many MRI scanners each NHS board has.

Question reference: S6W-43502

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 02 February 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 16 February 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many Healthcare Infection Incident Assessment reports were received from (a) NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, (b) NHS Lothian and (c) other NHS boards, broken down by hospital, between 2015 and March 2018, also broken down by how many were red alerts and notified to ministers, and what action was taken in each case.

Question reference: S6W-43086

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards received brokerage funding in 2024-25, broken down by the amount.

Question reference: S6W-43084

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 28 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the Scottish Spending Review 2026, how it plans to achieve a reduction of £384 million in 2026-27, £374 million in 2027-28 and £303 million in 2028-29 in efficiency savings in the health and social care portfolio, and how many jobs will be impacted each year as a result.

As set out in the Scottish Spending Review 2026, the majority of these efficiency and reform savings will come from the 3% target NHS Board recurring savings.

The NHS Scotland Finance Delivery Unit (FDU) is hosted by Scottish Government and aims to work with all NHS Boards to drive sustainable improvement, deliver insight and provide hands on capacity, for example, through the use of the ‘15 Box Grid’. Since the FDU was established in 2023, savings delivery in NHS Scotland has increased significantly, and recurring savings across NHS Scotland have doubled.

The FDU supports NHS Boards to achieve the 3% target by providing benchmarking and sharing best practice across NHS Boards. It also assesses local, regional and national opportunities, and sets the medium to long term financial forecast assumptions for NHS Scotland linking closely to the evolving work on reform.

On other operational efficiency and productivity savings, The Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan sets out measures and actions to deliver efficiencies including deprioritising lower impact spending and better targeting of existing resources. For example, we have established an Investment and Value Board to improve the evidence base for the impact of existing spending and new spending proposals, to drive evidence-based investment/disinvestment decisions.

Health efficiency and service renewal is also being taken forward through the NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan, the Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework, and Population Health Framework.

Our approach to health and social care reform and efficiency is multi-facetted, including service redesign, prevention and investment in technology. Our work on reform and change will be developed in partnership with trade union colleagues. It is not possible to provide the cumulative impact of all our actions on the number of jobs impacted each year.

Question reference: S6W-43019

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its draft Budget 2026-27 and the associated level 4 tables, whether it will provide a detailed breakdown of the £125.920 million committed to digital health and care.

The 2026-27 Budget provides almost £22.5 billion investment in health and social care services exceeding consequentials and providing a real terms uplift to enable more sustainable and resilient services.

In line with our Digital and Data Health and Care Strategies, and our Service Renewal Framework, we are continuing to invest in technology to improve health outcomes, enhance patient experience, and deliver more efficient services across Scotland. The draft 2026-27 Scottish Budget includes an allocation of £125.920 million to support a range of initiatives, including:

Digital and Data Infrastructure – For example, expansion of the National Digital Platform and continued development and rollout of systems such as the Digital Front Door, enabling better access to health and care information for citizens and professionals.
Cyber Security and Core Infrastructure – strengthening resilience and ensuring secure, reliable digital services across NHS Scotland.
Innovation and Data – enabling improved use of health data through AI-driven solutions, research partnerships, and projects that advance digital innovation.
Service Transformation – investment in remote monitoring, telehealth, and virtual consultations to improve access and reduce pressure on frontline services.
Workforce and Skills Development – building digital capability within the health and care workforce to support the effective adoption of new technologies.

The uplift in the digital health and care budget reflects increased funding to accelerate digital transformation focusing on Digital Front Door, and strengthen our underlying data infrastructure. These investments will help deliver person-centred care, improve efficiency, and support Scotland’s ambition to be a leader in digital health innovation.