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: S6T-02862

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 26 January 2026
Current Status: Due to be taken in the Chamber on 27 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that then health secretary, Shona Robison, u-turned on a promise to carry out an independent audit of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital before it opened to patients.

Question reference: S6W-43042

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 23 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been provided to local authorities to address delayed discharges, broken down by local authority, in each of the last five years.

The 2026-27 Budget provides a further real terms increase in the Local Government Settlement, delivering record funding of almost £15.7 billion including, a quarter of a billion pounds of unrestricted General Revenue Grant.

However, the Scottish Government’s policy towards local authorities’ spending is to allow local authorities the financial freedom to operate independently. As such, the vast majority of funding is provided by means of a block grant. It is then the responsibility of individual local authorities to manage their own budgets and to allocate the total financial resources available to them, including on delayed discharges, on the basis of local needs and priorities, having first fulfilled their statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set of national and local priorities.

Question reference: S6W-43016

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 23 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 £245.081 million in funding allocated to the Primary Care Fund.

The 2026-27 budget has not yet been passed by Parliament and is at draft stage. Spending plans are still being developed by policy leads but provisionally the budget will deliver £245.1 million for the Primary Care Fund which pays for various programmes and initiatives supporting general practice delivery e.g. the board employed multidisciplinary teams and GP walk-in service pilots among other measures.

Question reference: S6W-43234

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 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.

Question reference: S6W-43207

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected 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-43206

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected 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, despite calling for an additional £750 million for social care, there is no additional funding for social care after pay uplifts.

Question reference: S6W-43205

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected 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-43208

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
Current Status: Answer expected on 4 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.

Question reference: S6W-43085

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 21 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the Scottish Spending Review 2026, what savings are expected in each year from each (a) territorial and (b) special NHS board to achieve the savings of £247 million in 2026-27, £290 million in 2027-28 and £220 million in 2028-29.

All NHS Boards are required to deliver at least 3% recurring savings against baseline funding each year to support long-term fiscal sustainability. It is for individual Boards to determine how best to deliver these efficiencies without impacting patient care.

The Scottish Government’s Finance Delivery Unit (FDU) carries out three-year financial planning with NHS Boards. Board financial plans are expected in March 2026 and will provide oversight of boards planned savings for 2026-27. Future year Boards’ savings plans will continue to develop and will be agreed on an annual basis.

The FDU provides Boards with the 15 Box Grid to identify priority areas for delivering savings and securing value for money across workforce, innovation, value-based healthcare and productivity.

Question reference: S6W-43041

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2026
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 20 January 2026

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the people who were experiencing a delayed discharge at the November 2025 census point, had been delayed for more than four weeks.

Public Health Scotland publishes monthly Official Statistics on Delayed Discharge in NHS Scotland. The number of people delayed for more than four weeks at each monthly census point can be found in the detailed data tables for Standard delays and Code 9 (complex) delays.

Please note, the number of people delayed for Standard or Code 9 reasons at monthly census point reflects the main reason at the census point, and reasons for delay may change during a delay episode. The number of people delayed for four weeks or more for Standard reasons at monthly census point may therefore include some people who were delayed for complex (code 9) reasons during the same delay episode.

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/publications/delayed-discharges-in-nhsscotland-monthly/delayed-discharges-in-nhs-scotland-monthly-figures-for-november-2025

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/36782/2026-01-13_delayed_discharges_standard_delays_tables_to_november_2025.xlsx

https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/36781/2026-01-13_delayed_discharges_code9_delays_tables_to_november_2025.xlsx