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-37739

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on the number of unmet care hours due to a shortage of carers in each year since 2018, broken down by NHS board.

Health and Social Care Partnerships provide Public Health Scotland with a weekly snapshot of the current demand for Care at Home services. The data includes information on the total number of hours of care that people were waiting to receive, following an assessment of their needs. This information is available via the following weblink: Dashboard - People requiring a social care assessment and care at home services.

Please note that the information does not include the reasons why these hours of care were yet to be provided, nor does the Scottish Government hold information on local social care staffing levels.

Question reference: S6W-37704

Asked by: Mark Ruskell, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Green Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Gillian Martin on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-31971 by Gillian Martin on 12 December 2024, and the publication of its Programme for Government 2025-26, for what reason it no longer plans to introduce new primary legislation on drinking water and wastewater in the current parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6W-36982

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how the decision was reached to disband its constitutional futures division.

The Constitutional Futures Division (CFD) was established to take forward the government’s commitment to providing the people of Scotland with information about independence through the development of the Building a New Scotland (BANS) series of papers. Within the Scottish Government a division is part of a directorate, and CFD was part of the Constitution Directorate. Following the successful delivery of a suite of papers in the BANS series, and with the series due to conclude with the publication of a final overview paper, CFD ceased to be a standalone division in January 2025 and its ongoing work was merged into that of the wider Constitution Directorate.

Question reference: S6W-37513

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has paid the social research agency, The Lines Between, in each year since 2021-22, broken down by project.

Question reference: S6W-36983

Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Angus Robertson on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government which ministers were involved in taking the decision to disband its constitutional futures division.

Question reference: S6W-37736

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the average time has been between receiving a social care assessment and delivery of a social care package in each year since 2018, also broken down by NHS board.

The Scottish Government does not hold data which would answer this question.

However, data up to 2022-23 on Social Care eligibility and waiting times is publicly available at Local Authority level via the following weblink:

Social care: eligibility criteria and waiting times Scotland 2022-2023 - gov.scot

Data showing the time waited between completion of a community care assessment and delivery of a new personal care service in the final quarter of each financial year can be found in the ‘Waiting times new personal care clients’ worksheet of the Excel workbook accompanying the publication.

However there are a number of caveats with these data:

The data return template sent to LAs is aggregate, and only grouped time periods are collected. Therefore it is not possible to calculate an average waiting time – only a distribution of time periods is possible.
Many local authorities have reported difficulty in providing the information asked for in this data collection and therefore not all data is available for every year.
Due to the gaps in the Local Authority level data, we cannot effectively aggregate to Health Board. Completeness levels for each LA can be found within the ‘Data completeness’ tab of the Excel workbook accompanying the publication.

Due to the issues faced in collecting this data from LAs and due to the lack of completeness, this data collection has been paused while we explore alternative methods of obtaining higher quality information on eligibility criteria and the length of time people wait for services. Therefore the most recent data available is for
2022-23.

Question reference: S6W-37738

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how it is addressing any regional disparities in waiting times for assessed social care packages, and whether it will provide a breakdown of what efforts are being made by each NHS board to reduce waiting times.

The Scottish Government understands the pressures faced and have invested a record £21.7 billion in health and social care in 2025-26, which includes almost £2.2 billion for social care and integration

However, it is important to note that while the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care support policy in Scotland, decisions on how best to deliver services to local communities are ultimately for integration authorities and locally elected representatives to make.

While service delivery is ultimately a local responsibility, it is worth noting that the Scottish Government is taking action to reduce waiting times on a national level. On 31 March 2025 we published the NHS Scotland Operational Improvement Plan which sets out a clear plan to reduce waiting times and delayed discharges.

The Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework, which is scheduled to be published in June 2025, will also focus on the key reform areas that will drive our model of service to be more preventative, to find risk factors sooner and raise the level of early intervention and proactive care.

Question reference: S6W-37737

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what any shortfall in the social care workforce has been, in terms of hours of unmet care, since 2018, broken down by NHS board.

While the Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care support policy in Scotland, it is for local Integration Joint Boards (IJBs) to ensure that social care support services are in place to provide their population with the appropriate support in the right place and at the right time.

The Scottish Government does not hold information centrally in relation HSCP’s workforce numbers and in turn could not comment on how this impacts unmet need. This information would need to be provided by local areas themselves.

We understand the pressures being faced and addressing long waiting times for social care support is one of the reasons that the 2025-26 Budget prioritised both the Local Government Settlement and the Health & Social Care portfolio with both receiving record funding allocations.

This includes almost £2.2bn for social care and integration – increasing investment by £1.2bn since 2021-22. On top of that, our Budget makes a record £15 billion available for councils for 2025-26.

Question reference: S6W-37735

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been on a waiting list for a social care assessment in each year since 2018, also broken down by NHS board.

The information requested is not held centrally for all years requested.

However, weekly data on the number of people waiting for a social care assessment is published monthly by Public Health Scotland at Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) level. The dashboard can be accessed via the following link:

People requiring a Social Care assessment and Care at Home services

Data is available from 24 October 2022 onwards. Comparisons over time should be made with caution due to a change in definitions implemented in January 2024.

Comparison of figures between HSCPs should also be made with caution and should be done in conjunction with the data quality notes available in the dashboard.

Not all Partnerships were able to provide all data. The data quality section of the dashboard provides more information on each of the partnerships' ability to provide data.

Question reference: S6W-37732

Asked by: Jamie Halcro Johnston, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2025
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 30 May 2025

To ask the Scottish Government what the total estimated number of care hours required was, and how many were delivered, in each year since 2018, also broken down by NHS board.

Data on the total number of care hours planned for delivery is not held centrally.

Data on the number of hours of care at home funded by Health and Social Care Partnerships in Scotland is published annually by Public Health Scotland and can be found via the dashboard on following weblink:

Care at Home Statistics for Scotland: Support and services funded by Health and Social Care Partnerships in Scotland 2023/2024 - Care at Home Statistics for Scotland - Publications - Public Health Scotland

Data are available for 2018-19 to 2023-24.

Data showing the number of hours for people assessed but yet to be delivered, and for number of additional hours of care to be delivered to those already receiving a care package is published by Public Health Scotland at local authority level. This can be found via the dashboard on following weblink:

Overview - People requiring a Social Care assessment and Care at Home services - Care at home - Social and community care - Healthcare system - Public Health Scotland

Fiscal Year	Spend
2021-22	£121,086.90
2022-23	£399,965.36
2023-24	£477,423.47
2024-25	£549,284.31